Turkey’s 2017 budget accepted in parliament

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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The Central Administration Budget Law Draft and the 2015 Decentralized Administrative Settlement Law Draft were approved by parliament’s General Assembly late on Dec. 16. 

The first draft of the 2017 Annual Administrative Budget Draft Law was made after the completion of the negotiations. 

Of 415 deputies who attended the first voting session, 312 deputies approved and the remaining 103 deputies voted against. Some 414 deputies attended the second draft voting session, with 312 voting in favor and the remaining 102 voting against. 

The two drafts were therefor accepted at parliament. 

The Finance Ministry estimates that budget expenses for the 2017 fiscal year will reach 645.1 billion Turkish Liras ($184 billion), while budget income will reach 598.3 billion liras ($170.6 billion).

Some 78 billion liras ($22.2 billion) will be allocated for public investments in 2017, a 30 percent increase from 2016. 

The biggest portion of public investments will be allocated to the transport sector in 2017 with 22.1 billion liras ($6.3 billion), followed by the education and agriculture sectors with 13.7 billion liras ($4 billion) and 10.3 billion liras ($3 billion) respectively.   

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said the government was “aiming to drive investments.”

“In the 2017 budget, investments will increase by 30 percent from the previous year. The new budget is set to increase employment and production, especially to support our fight against terrorism by allocating enormous sources to reconstruct our regions … Turkey’s most important problem is terrorism, and we hope to overcome this problem,” Yıldırım said in a speech at parliament.