Parliament of Georgia Approves Budget 2019

The Parliament of Georgia approved the budget on December 13 with 91 votes for and 9 against.

Georgia’s budget has been increased by GEL 630.5 million ($237m) for the next year and in total will amount to GEL 13.09 billion (4.922b).

The budget funds amounted to GEL 11,696,200,000 ($4.397 bln), grants - GEL 92,700,000 ($34.85 m) and loans - GEL 1,301,100,000 ($489.21 m).

Other basic parameters of the 2019 budget are: GDP deflator - 3.5%; Inflation - 3.0%; Budget deficit - 2.6%.

The document reads that the funding of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs will be GEL 4 ($15 b) billion. Financing of the Ministry increased by more than GEL 344 million ($129 m) compared to the 2018 budget.

Funding for the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure has increased by GEL 35 million ($13.16m) compared to the previous version of the bill and amounts to GEL 2 billion ($0.75 m) which is GEL 174.8 million ($65.7m) more compared to 2018.

The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport will be financed with GEL 1,508,500,000 ($567,233,210), which is GEL 47 million ($17.67m) more compared to the previous year's budget.

The funds allocated to the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture amount to GEL 338,900,000 ($127,434,759), which is GEL 64 million ($24.07m) more compared to 2018.

The funding of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has also increased in comparison to the previous budget project and amounts to 369,500,000 GEL ($138,941,114).

The Ministry of Finance of Georgia will get GEL 91 million ($34.22m) from the budget.

The amount of allocated funding to the Ministry of Justice exceeds GEL 181 million ($68.06m) in 2019 while 136,500 million GEL ($51,327m) will be allocated for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

875 million GEL ($329m) will be allocated for the Ministry of Defense, which is 5 million ($1.88) more than envisaged by the previous draft

The Interior Ministry merged with the Emergency Situations Management Service and the allocated funding for the next year for the ministry will be 741,600,000 GEL ($278,859,893). The funding includes expenditures for increased salaries of policemen, rescuers and fire-fighters.

The budget of the State Security Service will be GEL 136 million ($51.14m) and also includes funds for increasing salaries of certain rank employees.

By Thea Morrison