FIRST DISCUSSION OF 2018 BUDGET BILL STARTS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A plenary meeting of the Parliament held Thursday started to discuss the first hearing of 2018 state budget bill, as the Mongolian People’s Party Group finished a break taken on the issue. On October 27, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh submitted the bill to the Parliament and an irregular plenary meeting of the Parliament was scheduled to discuss the first hearing of the 2018 state budget bill on October 31, but it has been postponed, as the MPP group took five day break. In the beginning of the discussion, PM U.Khurelsukh made introduction of the bill. According to the bill, the revenue is expected to be MNT 7.2 trillion (23.8 per cent of GDP) and expenditure--MNT 9.6 trillion (31.8 per cent of GDP), having a deficit of MNT 2.4 trillion or 8 percent of GDP. The Government intends to reduce the deficit 1.5 percent more than in 2017. The Government estimated to broaden the revenue base of the budget through mobilizing potential sources and upgrading tax relations on transfer works of mining or exploration licenses and land related licenses. It planned to reduce its securities issuance in domestic market, lower interest rate of Government securities by decreasing amount of securities, which have used to trade to commercial banks with high interest rate. B.Ooluun