15:53, 28 ноября 2019, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Darya PODOLSKAYA
The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan is considering a draft republican budget for 2020 and the forecast for 2021 in the second reading today. Deputies raised the issue of smuggling and corruption at the Customs following an investigation of journalists.
The Prime Minister Mukhammedkaly Abylgaziev claims that the $ 700 million in question is business money.
«We do not know how did it get into Kyrgyzstan. We need to check everything. But this is not budget money. In 2018, at least $ 90.5 billion have been transferred from all banks in the country. For six months of 2019, about $ 48.3 billion was transferred. We have liberal banks, maybe that’s why they transfer money through us. However, we must be careful in this matter, businessmen may suffer. As for the $ 700 million, we need to check everything. If this is smuggling, then we must fight it,» he said.
Under the project, the total revenues of the republican budget, taking into account state investment grants in 2020, should amount to 163,710 billion soms, expenses — 173,663 billion soms. The budget deficit in 2020 will amount to 9,953 billion soms, or 1.5 percent of GDP.