Parliament of Georgia approves budget for 2023. Where will $8 billion go?

Parliament of Georgia approves budget for 2023

The Parliament of Georgia has approved the state budget for 2023. According to the draft, the total budget for 2023 will increase by 2,061,900,000 lari [about $784 million] compared to the plan of the previous year, and thus will amount to 21,914,200,000 lari [about $8 billion].

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According to macroeconomic indicators, real economic growth is planned to be within five percent.

The amounts determined to finance ministries for the next financial year are as follows:

• Ministry for Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories of Georgia, the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Protection – 6,858,420,000 lari [about $2.6 billion];
• Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure – 3,330,920,000 lari [about $1.3 billion];
• the Ministry of Education and Science – 2,030,780,700 lari [about $772 million];
• Ministry of Defense – 1,260,000,000 lari [about $480 million];
• Ministry of Internal Affairs – 1,106,000,000 lari [about $420.5 million];
• the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture – 698,480,000 lari [about $266 million];
• Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development – 558,180,000 lari [about $212 million];
• the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth – 431,232,000 lari [about $164 million];
• Ministry of Justice – 392,400,000 lari [about $149 million];
• the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 186,000,000 lari [about $71 million];
• Ministry of Finance – 106,000,000 lari [about $40 million].
• by 2023, state budget revenues are set at more than 17,619,000,000 lari [about $6.7 billion].

Tax receipts are classified as follows:

income tax – 5,140,000,000 lari [about $1.9 billion];
income tax – 2,000,000,000 lari [about $760 million];
value added tax – 6,670,000,000 lari [about $2.5 billion];
excise tax – 2,100,000,000 lari [about $798 million];
import tax – 130,000,000 lari [about $49 million];
other taxes – 250,000,000 lari [about $95 million].

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In January-September of this year, the Georgian economy grew by 10.2%. In addition, according to the National Bank economic growth this year will be 10%, to which a significant contribution will be made by an increase in tourism and migration.

The influx of migrants has had a positive impact on the Georgian economy, although this will be a one-time effect, a senior official at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Liaziza Sabirova, believes.

The same opinion is shared by Katharina Bjorlin Hansen, Regional Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Caucasus. There are doubts, she said, about how sustainable the current double-digit economic growth in Georgia will be, given the overall unstable situation in the region.

Despite the rapid dynamics of economic growth, food prices in Georgia are growing. Manufacturers attribute the increase in prices to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, complex logistics from Russia, and an increase in prices for products and raw materials on the world market.

It should also be noted that, according to the research organization PMCG, the total number of people who emigrated from Georgia increased by seven percent from 2010 to 2020 and amounted to 861,000 people, which is 23% of the country’s population.