Damascus, SANA – The People’s Assembly discussed on Sunday the government financial statement on the draft state budget for 2017.
During the discussions, Minister of Finance Ma’moun Hamdan said the Syrian economy has suffered over the past five years of the war sharp drop in the total economic indicators and there has been decline in the treasury revenue and reduced performance of the production and services sectors.
This, he added, caused decline in treasury revenues and low living standards, stressing the need of focusing on boosting national production through rationalizing imports, activating administrative reform, fighting corruption and preparing for reconstruction.
Four days ago, President Bashar al-Assad referred the draft state budget for 2017 to the People’s Assembly for review.
Earlier, the Cabinet set the preliminary sum of the state budget at SYP 2660 billion, which are distributed as SYP 1,982 billion for running expenditures and SYP 678 billion for investment expenditures, with sums dedicated to social support set at SYP 423 billion.
H. Said