Vice-Chairman of the State Administration Council Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior Gen­eral Soe Win, who is Financial Commission Vice-Chairman, highlighted salient points in co­ordination on the Union Budget for the 2024-25 financial year at the Ministry of Planning and Fi­nance in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday afternoon.

In his speech, the Vice-Sen­ior General underscored that some ministries handed over the allocated funds back to the government due to a lack of full spending. Such an act may cause a decline in GDP and a loss in investment and manufacturing. Budget allotment aims to con­trol the inflation rate based on the ratio of deficiency to GDP. Hence, ministries have to man­age how to overcome challenges and difficulties in spending the allocated funds to contribute to the development of the nation, he added.

With regard to clarifying the management of the State budget, the Vice-Senior General said that the statistics showed that the ratio of budget deficiency to GDP was 8.86 per cent. After verifi­cation, the ratio of deficiency to GDP was 5.67 per cent in the 2024-25 financial year, exceeding five per cent on average. In the 2023-24 FY, the ratio of budget deficiency to GDP was 5.65 per cent, which was 0.02 per cent less than in 2024-25 FY, he noted.

He continued that such differences were based on the depreciation of Myanmar kyat with foreign currency, Hardship and Risk Allowance, trainee allowances, cost to be spent under the People’s Military Service Law, and fi­nance for socioeconomic de­velopment and infrastructure development of the nation.

He explained that if the country faces a more consid­erable budget deficiency, the foreign debt amount may in­crease, adding that it is nec­essary to keep the budget deficiency in an appropriate amount in order to control debt resilience and inflation rate.

The Vice-Senior General revealed that the government of the State Administration Council is systematically man­aging the budget of the State under the public finance man­agement ways in order to rem­edy the State economy, which declined due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the re-surge of the State economy.

The Chairman of the Union and Region and State Budget Scrutiny Committee SAC member explained the committee’s inspection of the accounts of the Union, regions, and states in the 2024-25 FY.

Secretary of the Commis­sion Union Minister U Win Shein and Deputy Minister U Maung Maung Win reported on the budget accounts of the Union level departments and organizations for 2024-25 FY and explained the budget of the Union for the 2024-25 FY.

Union Auditor-General Dr Khin Naing Oo reported on auditing the accounts. Un­ion-level dignitaries and Union ministers discussed the budg­ets of relevant organizations and departments.

Also present at the meet­ing were SAC member Lt-Gen Nyo Saw, the Chairman of the Union Civil Service Board, the Nay Pyi Taw Council Chair­man, the Governor of the Cen­tral Bank of Myanmar and of­ficials. — MNA/TTA