The House of Peoples’ Representatives (HoPR) has approved an additional budget of 122 billion birr out of which the biggest budget allocation was made for the Ministry of Defense. The HoPR assigned 90 billion birr for the Ministry of Defense while 5 billion birr and 8 billion birr were allocated for rebuilding war-torn areas and daily humanitarian assistance respectively.
The parliament approved the additional budget with a majority vote, nine objections and seven abstentions. The budget will be allocated for national security, humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation of war and conflict victims, and other implementations. The parliament allotted 106 billion birr for recurrent expenditure, 7 billion birr for capital expenditure, and 9 billion birr to cover expenses.
It is indicated that there is a need to allocate more budget due to the economic pressures in the war-torn areas and the inability to collect tax revenue on time due to Covd-19. A proposal was made to cover this additional budget and budget deficit from domestic loans.
