The National Assembly on Friday approved a budget of $926 million for 2006, 20 percent higher than the $772 million in expenditures approved for 2005.
Passed by an Assembly vote of 84 to 12, the budget forecasts $683 million to be raised in tax revenue. To fill the deficit the Assembly approved financing of $243 million in the form of grants and loans.
Addressing the Assembly, Finance Minister Keat Chhon emphasized plans to increase spending on irrigation in the 2006 budget.
“The government is investing in irrigation for farmers,” he said. “We have $255 million for irrigation.”
Keat Chhon claimed that this year’s projected 20 percent increase in rice yields was due to investment in irrigation projects.
“You see that the yield of rice this year had a remarkable increase, that was part of the prime minister’s irrigation intervention,” he said.
Keat Chhon also announced extensions on tax holidays for large investments.
Opposition lawmakers took the floor of the Assembly to admonish the government for failing to follow expenditure plans laid out in past budgets.
Opposition member Yim Sovann and Son Chhay also blasted the ruling parties for failing to implement a proposed land tax in Phnom Penh that was scrapped last week by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
