Georgia, Tbilisi, Nov 24 /corr Trend N.Kirtzkhalia/
The Georgian parliament approved increasing its budget by 213 million laris ($ 1 = 1.65 lari) at the plenary meeting to discuss amendments to the Law on State Budget for 2011 on Thursday. This decision was adopted by 88 votes for and four against.
Of particular note there are increases of 120 million of tax revenues and 100 million for other incomes. The increased tax revenues are the result of 'fiscal tax pressure', Dmitry Gvindadze Minister of Finance said in Parliament.
According to Mr Gvindadze, the budget allocation will increase due to the increase in revenue and will include health programmes, agriculture, construction of cells for long prison sentences and other infrastructure projects. The opposition is againstthe adoption of amendments to the budget.
The change in the state budget provides an increase of revenues in the current year from 6.304 billion lari to 6.476 billion lari and the volume of tax revenues increased by 125 million lari. However, there is a reduction in grants to the sum of 53 million lari.
The government explained the increase in revenue is down to the growth of the economy, which is festomated to increase from 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent, with the forecast of a nominal 23.8 billion lari of GDP.
According to the submitted project budget expenditures will increase from the current 5.966 billion lari to 6.020 billion lari.