KABUL - A number of lawmakers on Friday said the budget plan for the next fiscal year was rejected over late submission of the document to the parliament and monetary violations. 
The plan for the fiscal year 1400 (2021) was submitted to the parliament on Tuesday in which the government estimated 452 billion Afs ($5.8 billion) for the next year. 
“According to the provisions of the law, applying for loans and their approval is the authority of the parliament, but the government has opted for loans without consulting the parliament,” said Mohammad Azim Kibrzani, an MP from Herat.  
“With consideration of major shortcomings that we noted in the budget plan, we rejected the draft budget. The government needs to take swift action, fill the gaps and sent back the draft budget to the house,” said MP Simin Barakzai.  
Other lawmakers meanwhile alleged that a number of MPs have suggested some necessary amendments in the budget plan to the government that were not taken seriously by the finance ministry. 
In response, the Afghan Ministry of Finance (MoF) said that it will consider necessary measures after assessing those factors that led to the refusal of the document in the parliament.
“In the mid-year budget plan, there is a 4.5 billion Afs additional money for the ordinary budget and 4.5 billion Afs in the development budget” said Shamroz Khan Masjidi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.  
According to the MPs, the allocation of 8 billion Afs for the Operation and Support Office of the President for National Development, deficiencies in submitting documents for the loan from the International Monetary Funds (IMF) and deduction of more than five billion Afs from projects and allocation of an additional 400 billion Afs for the ordinary budget of Ministry of Finance are among key factors that the MPs decided to reject the draft budget.
From the total of 452 billion Afs, 296.3 billion Afs has been allocated for ordinary budget and 153.3 billion Afs for the development budget.