North’s ‘state’ budget passes through committee stage

The north’s ‘state’ budget for 2024 passed through the ‘parliamentary’ finance committee stage on Friday evening with the votes of the majority of the committee’s members.

The budget foresees total ‘government’ spending for the year to be just over 78.7 billion TL (€2.5bn), with income forecast to be 71.9bn TL (€2.3bn).

The passing of the budget in its entirety brings to an end a 24-day marathon committee process, in which the budgets of each individual ‘government’ agency, ‘ministry’, and department were divulged by the committee’s members.

The budget will now be sent to the a ‘parliamentary’ plenary vote.

This year’s budget debates had been characterised by opposition ‘MPs’ raising objections to the budgets and the conduct of various ‘ministers’, while committee votes were typically passed with the votes of ‘MPs’ from the ruling coalition.

It is expected that the plenary session vote will pass in a similar fashion, with the three-party ruling coalition holding a ‘parliamentary’ majority of eight.