State budget amended

During its plenary session on April 29, Parliament amended the 2022 Budget Law, Budget Laws of the Social Insurance Fund and the Future Heritage Fund, Law on Budget Framework Statement for 2022 and Budget Assumptions for 2023 to 2024 along with their accompanying bills.

In accordance with the amended laws, expenses of the 2022 unified budget increased by 16 billion MNT to 4.3 trillion MNT.

The Law on State Austerity was approved for the first time in line with the budget amendment. The law prohibits Parliament, government agencies, and state-owned enterprises from having a deputy chair, unless otherwise stated in the law, and the Ulaanbaatar mayor from having more than two deputies while province, district and soum governors can appoint only one deputy governor respectively.

It also bans the state use of large cars in urban areas. In accordance with the bill, government officials will drive full-size cars only during business trips to rural areas. In accordance with the law, directors of state-funded organizations are not allowed to make arbitrary decisions on staffing, basic salaries, additional pay, compensation or bonuses.

The amended Budget Law states that stateowned companies will save 10 percent of their 2022 budgets and that a total of 80 jobs at stateowned companies will be removed, including the positions of 37 deputy heads of government agencies and 21 provincial deputy governors. It is estimated that this will trim expenses by 1.3 billion MNT.

In general, government organizations will save a total of 39.1 billion MNT. Under the law, a total of 6,178 employees other than special civil servants will not wear uniforms and 5,562 state vehicles will be put up for auction. Restructuring of state-owned enterprises will be carried out in stages, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The ministry added that failure to comply with the financial discipline and austerity procedures can become a ground for dismissal for public officials.

During the session, Parliament also adopted a new resolution on measures to be taken to increase kindergarten access. It doubles the variable cost to be paid by the state to kindergartens in an attempt to increase the number of kindergartens. In addition, it directs authorities and institutions to include children aged two to three in childcare services. This is estimated to allow more than 5,000 children to receive childcare services in 57 congested locations.

There are 305,783 children aged two to five in Mongolia and about 233,090 of them are receiving preschool education. Preschool enrollment for children aged four to five is relatively high (86 to 93 percent), while 73 percent of threeyear-olds and only 53.9 percent of two-year-olds are attending kindergarten. In other words, 38,538 children in Ulaanbaatar and 334,159 in provincial areas are not receiving pre-school education. Minister of Education and Science L.Enkh-Amgalan informed that increasing the availability of preschool education facilities requires addressing the variable costs for children aged two. He emphasized that variable costs will be provided to children who are unable to attend kindergarten.

In accordance with the budget amendment, the current expenses of the Judicial Disciplinary Committee will be increased by 425.5 million MNT, and expenses for foreign loans and grants will be reduced by 16.4 billion MNT.

Under the budget amendment, a total of 33 planned measures were canceled, including the construction of six office buildings, three stadiums, seven cultural centers, three gyms and complexes, two swimming pools, one airag house, six local landscaping works and three public roads and squares, as well as the purchase of 18 office equipment and 12 office renovation work. The government estimates that this will reduce operating and management costs by more than 20 percent and eliminate more than 1,500 jobs.

Parliamentarian D.Unurbolor highlighted that the amendments meet the legal requirement of not raising budget expenditures and deficits.