The House of People’s Representatives of Ethiopia, the lower house of parliament, Tuesday approved a 582 billion birr (about $4.7 billion) supplementary budget for the 2024/25 fiscal year.
The additional budget would be used to cover debt payments, social budget subsidies, expand capital projects, social safety net programmes and a pay increment for government employees.
Of the approved additional budget, 393 billion birr was allocated for regular expenditure, while 70 billion birr was reserved for capital projects and 119 billion birr went towards expenditure adjustments.
Addressing queries posed by lawmakers, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide clarified that the additional budget would be financed through domestic and foreign revenues, and would be allocated to support low-paid government employees and safety net beneficiaries.
After thorough deliberation on the additional budget bill for the 2017 (2024-2025) fiscal year, the house approved the bill, with three objections and five abstentions.
The House of People’s Representatives had on July 4 approved a 971.2 billion Birr budget for this fiscal year.
The budget is based on the 10-year Prospective Development Plan and the next five years’ medium-term macroeconomic and fiscal frameworks of the country by considering the government’s financial capacity and expected revenues as well as expenses.
MG/jn/APA