Today, the session of the House took place chaired by Speaker of the Senate Maulen Ashimbayev, where senators considered the bills “On the Republican Budget for 2022 – 2024” and “On a Guaranteed Transfer from the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2022 – 2024”.
The three-year republican budget is aimed at the implementation of national priorities on overcoming the impact of the coronavirus crisis and the fulfillment of the tasks set by Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. This way Speaker of the Senate Maulen Ashimbayev described the bill during the meeting.
“Over the past few years, the government has allocated a lot of money to overcome the pandemic consequences, to provide support to our citizens and affected businesses. The situation remains difficult, but on the whole, one can say that Kazakhstan is coping with the consequences of the pandemic. The budget for the next three years is now more of a recovery and development budget. The Address of the Head of State sets out clear tasks for the recovery of the economy in the post-pandemic period, improving industrial efficiency, developing the regions, and solving the most acute social problems that concern the population. The financing of these tasks got reflected in the budget,” the Speaker of the Senate noted.
One of the major tasks of the budget is the strict fulfillment of the social commitments of the state to the citizens. Therefore, the largest specific weight in the budget expenditures for the three-year period is the expenditures of the social sector. 50.8% of the total expenditures will be allocated precisely for this sector in 2022. By 2024, this figure will be 59.8.
“All social commitments of the state will be carried out in full. Based on the growth of revenues over 3 years, there are plans to increase spending on the social sector by almost a third. In general, 26.7 trillion KZT is allocated for the social sector in 2022-24. These funds allow resolving a lot of social problems. First of all, this concerns the indexation of social benefits, increasing the salaries of teachers, doctors, and other groups of public-sector employees, and the construction of many social facilities,” Maulen Ashimbayev said.
Following the instructions of the Head of State, 10 National Projects were adopted in the country, aimed at boosting the economy and improving the quality of life of our citizens. The Speaker of the Senate indicated the need to effectively use the allocated budget funds for the implementation of these national projects.
“In the three-year budget, considered today, appropriate funds have been allocated for the implementation of the National Projects. The efficiency of the use of public funds is of great importance,” the Chairman of the House noted.
Apart from that, the Senate supported the measures planned by the Government aimed at ensuring the growth of budget revenues and reducing the number of transfers from the National Fund. Maulen Ashimbayev reminded that these issues had been repeatedly raised by senators.
“Overall, the three-year budget is a serious challenge for the Government which undertakes to provide the growth of budget revenues by 35% within three years due to the pace of economic development and reduction of the shadow sector. In doing so, there are plans to gradually reduce the budget deficit and cut the number of transfers from the National Fund. We fully support the activities of the Government in this regard,” Maulen Ashimbayev assured.
Also, in the course of the discussion of the bills, senators raised several specific topical issues before members of the Government, which include inflation growth, including fuel prices, increase in the state debt, provision of rural residents with clean drinking water, Internet, expansion of the network of paramedical stations and others.
After the consideration of the bills in the Senate, deputies proposed making adjustments to the republican budget. Specifically, they suggested increasing the cost for reconstruction and development of roads, gas supply, construction and repair of water supply networks, and others. It was proposed to ensure financing of these expenditures through the reallocation of funds that were provided in the Government reserve.
Thereby, senators, after supporting the key provisions of the bill and after proposing to reallocate part of the funds to address specific regional problems, have returned the bill “On the Republican Budget for 2022 – 2024” to the Mazhilis. However, the Law “On a Guaranteed Transfer from the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2022 – 2024” was approved by senators without any changes.
(Press Office of the Senate, 74-72-27. Photo by E. Ukibayev)
