Myanmar - Burma says GDP projected to increase 6.7 per cent

Burma is shooting for a gross domestic product (GDP) increase of 6.7 per cent for the coming fiscal year 2012-13 which will start on April 1.

The Parliament on Monday enacted the 2012-13 National Planning Law, signed by President Thein Sein, the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported.

By sectors, the GDP agriculture sector is projected to increase 3 per cent; the industrial sector 9 per cent and the service sector 8.3 per cent.

The ongoing third Parliament session in Naypyitaw, which began on Jan. 26, also approved the Supplementary Union Budget Allocation Bill (2012) in February, the amended Foreign Investment Law Bill, the Environmental Conservation Bill, the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Bill; and the 2011 Farmland Bill.

The Union Budget bills for 2011-12 and for 2012-13 remain to be discussed.

Budget deliberations are a matter of some secrecy in Burma. Following the opening session of the Burmese Parliament in January, lawmakers reviewed state budgets for the 2012-13 financial year in hope of reducing the defict.

The former SPDC government enacted a state budget for the 2011-12 financial year with a 2.3 trillion kyat deficit. A total of 2201.45 billion kyat was for the central government and 170.495 billion kyat was for state and regional governments.

A preliminary meeting on state budgets for the 2012-13 financial year was held in Naypyitaw on January 17, attended by lawmakers from the public accounts committee, and ministers from finance, national planning, construction, electricity, railway, defence and health ministries.

Finance Minister Hla Tun told the meeting that he could not project in which sectors they could reduce the deficit in the proposed budget, Tin Nwe Oo of the National Democratic Force told Mizzima in January.

“Despite holding a meeting, they didn’t show us a detailed budget,” said another Member of Parliament. “The finance minister just said the amount could be reduced this financial year. He didn’t give us the figures in detail but he showed some on a projector."

Another participant in the meeting, MP Phone Myint Aung of the New National Democracy Party said that there would be a deficit in 2012-13 financial year.

The current budget enacted by the previous government will end on March 3. The first budget of the new government led by President Thein Sein will start on April 1. MPs said they expected the new budget to be published in the government Gazette as public information.

Mizzima News

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