The General Purpose Committee has approved a USD13 million budget for the Parliament for 2024.
A USD12.1 million budget was proposed for the Parliament. However, the committee increased the budget to raise the salaries of the employees working at the Secretariat of the Parliament. The committee members noted that the salaries of the parliamentary staff have remained unchanged for 11 years and agreed to raise their allowance instead of increasing the salary directly.
Therefore, the committee unanimously approved a USD12.7 million budget for the Parliament. It includes USD400,000 in accordance with the change in the regulations for payment of allowances to the employees of the Secretariat of the Parliament and USD200,000 for new policy initiatives.
The estimated budget for next year is more than the USD11.8 million budget approved for this year. The main reason for the increase in next year's budget is the addition of new members to Parliament. As such, 93 seats have been allocated for the next parliamentary election in 2024, which is an increase of six seats.