Finance Minister hails budget review, acknowledges deficit

Somali minister for finance, Mohamed Aden Fargeti has commended the endorsement of the reviewed 2014-2015 budget national budget acknowledging a great deal of deficit totalling almost half of the budget.

The Somali parliament on Thursday passed the amended 2015 budget which recorded a huge deficit after donor’s withdrawal of funds to the government.
The minister has underlined that the reviewed budget was mostly based on the recommendations proposed by the Parliament and adaptability costs of government agencies.

However Fargeti has acknowledged budget deficit after international donors failed to honour their pledges. Some 49% of the current budget allocation was supposed to be financed by the international partners.

The budget significantly affected the top three offices in the land- the presidency, the office of the premier and the office of speaker.

Some major reasons for the deficit include when $60 millions USD which were expected from the Government of Turkey and Arab League didn’t materialized, doubled up with ineffective tax collection mechanism by government.