In a recent cabinet meeting, government accepted to add 5.2 billion AFs to the national budget of the current fiscal year in order to address the needs of the Defense Ministry and a number of other government institutions, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said on Saturday.

The Finance Ministry spokesman Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai said that despite an increase in this year’s budget, a number of budgetary units are faced with challenges in spending their allocated budget.

“The cabinet’s decision is made in accordance with the budget principles. We have added the amount to the budget. In addition to addressing the requirements of the Ministry of Defense, it will address the needs of other ministries as well,” Rahimzai said.

Meanwhile, Sadiqi Nili Zada, an MP, said that increase and decrease in the national budget will create challenges.

He added that many development projects have not been implemented despite that the budget was approved by the parliament four months ago.

“It would have been better if the Finance Ministry had added the amount at first when the budget was approved [by the parliament]. Adding this much money to the budget in the middle of the year will create challenges. How the money will be spent for the [uplift] projects, how it will be processed and how will the work on projects and plans will progress in such a short time?” he asked.

The national budget for the solar year 1396 (March 2017 to March 2018) is over 429 billion AFs of which 268 billion AFs is part of the ordinary budget and the remaining 160 billion AFs is part of the development budget.

The national budget for the fiscal year 1396 was approved by the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) in January.