Yemen's parliament approves budget plans

The parliament [of Yemen] on Saturday passed the State's general budget draft for the fiscal year 2013 worth of over YR 2.7 trillion ($13 billion).

In its session chaired by speaker Yhaya al-Rae'i, the parliament members voted on each individual article of the budget draft, and approved them all. 

The parliament's approval came after the government's commitment to implement its recommendations and after the finance minister gave clarifications of the parliament members' queries.

The 2013 draft general budget was approved by the government on December 23, 2012. It was estimated at YR 2,766,998,985,000,($13 billion) which is nearly YR650 billion ($3 bilion) more than the 2012 budget of YR 2,111,129,453,000 ($10 trillion).

The approved draft recorded an expected deficit of roughly YR 0.6 trillion (YR682,787,340,000/ $3 billion) compared to YR 0.5 trillion (YR561,611,320,000/ $2.6 bilion) in 2012.

Heading the list of the parliament's recommendations to the government was to end the security disorder and achieve the stability in the country, in addition to keeping the expenditures under control, eliminating unnecessary expenses and improving non-oil resources in order to limit the deficit and insure economic stability.

It urged the government to take all measures required to improve the investment environment and carry out the investment projects included in the budget draft, with a priority given to the labor-intensive projects.

Moreover, the parliament recommended the government to address seriously the growing of domestic debt and to stop permanently to fund the budget's deficit by inflation means as well as increasing the programs and activities geared to the poor and low-income people.