BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 1
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend
According to the draft state budget for 2021, the Georgian government plans to spend 17.07 billion lari ($5.3 billion) next year, which is 1.1 billion lari ($344.1 million) more than in 2020, Trend reports via Georgian media.
Next year, the government plans to receive additional external debt of 2.1 billion lari ($657 million). For comparison, the income from the new external debt in 2020 is set at 6.2 billion lari ($1.9 billion).
The government plans to attract 1 billion lari ($312.8 million) as domestic debt, which is 850 million lari ($265.9 million) less than the domestic debt plan for 2020. At the same time, according to the budget, the debt service fee will increase, amounting to 2.6 billion lari ($813.5 million). In total, the budget deficit will reach 5.1 percent in 2021.
The draft budget for 2021 shows that by the end of 2020, the budget balance in the treasury will reach 2.5 billion lari ($782.2 million), and this balance will be spent in 2021.
In 2021, 2.9 billion lari ($907.4 million) will be spent on servicing the public debt, which is 1.57 billion lari ($491.2 million) more than in 2020. The increase in debt service is primarily associated with the redemption of $500 million Eurobonds in April 2021. Next year, servicing the internal debt will cost the budget 600 million lari ($187.7 million), which is 152 million lari ($47.5 million) more than in 2020.
According to the draft budget for 2021, the government is forecasting an improvement in tax revenues.
The tax plan for 2020 is set at 9 billion lari ($2.8 billion), and by 2021 tax revenues will increase to 10.45 billion lari ($3.2 billion).
The budget submitted by the government will be approved after the parliamentary elections.
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