Myanmar spent 29% of budget for the army
Myanmar, in its 2012-13 fiscal year, has spent 29 per cent of its entire budget for the defense forces, while the education sector received just 11 per cent and the health sector just 5.7 per cent. The allocation for social welfare was even worse with just 0.29 per cent, UNICEF pointed out in a recent report.
UNICEF said that funding problems could be quickly solved if Myanmar’s reformist government put cash earned from natural resource revenue into social infrastructure. The report noted that less than nine days of natural gas revenue could ensure one teacher per each primary school grade. Currently, because of funding shortages, teachers often have classes with as many as five different grades in them.
UNICEF stated that a 0.57 per cent increase in the actual tax collected on hardwood extraction would secure the annual salary of 6,000 social workers, that 0.87 per cent of revenues from new natural gas projects would provide for the purchase of all the vaccines needed annually in Myanmar, one extra dollar in tax collected for each kilogramme of jade could have built 14,596 classrooms over the last nine years, and that just over one quarter of Myanmar’s 2010 sales from the auction of precious and semi-precious stones could have provided for a universal child benefit of 15,000 kyat ($17) a month for all Myanmar children under five.
In the current fiscal year 2013-14 (ending March 31), Myanmar’s armed forces (officially) received a reduced 13.6 per cent of Myanmar’s national budget, and in the coming fiscal period that figure may be reduced to 12.26 per cent or $2.3 billion, Defense Minister Lt-Gen Wai Lwin said during the a parliament session on January 15. Between 3 and 5 per cent will go to health and education, respectively.
The minister said that the money would be used to cover military welfare, expenditures for vehicles and machineries, training at military academies and sending officers abroad to attend training. There is also spending on roads, bridged and other infrastructure, from which rural development would benefit, he added.
He added that Myanmar’s spending on the military is lower than Thailand’s with $ 5.39 billion annually, and Malaysia’s with $4.2 billion.
However, critics say that there is no checks-and-balance system in Myanmar to control the military spending, and the actual money that goes to military coffers may be much higher due to the military’s massive involvement in the country’s key economic sectors where money flows are not publicly revealed and tax evasion is rampant.
Myanmar, in its 2012-13 fiscal year, has spent 29 per cent of its entire budget for the defense forces, while the education sector received just 11 per cent and the health sector just 5.7 per cent. The allocation for social welfare was even worse with just 0.29 per cent, UNICEF pointed out in a recent report. UNICEF said that funding problems could be quickly solved if Myanmar’s reformist government put cash earned from natural resource revenue into social infrastructure. The report noted that less than nine days of natural gas revenue could ensure one teacher per each primary school grade....
Myanmar, in its 2012-13 fiscal year, has spent 29 per cent of its entire budget for the defense forces, while the education sector received just 11 per cent and the health sector just 5.7 per cent. The allocation for social welfare was even worse with just 0.29 per cent, UNICEF pointed out in a recent report.
UNICEF said that funding problems could be quickly solved if Myanmar’s reformist government put cash earned from natural resource revenue into social infrastructure. The report noted that less than nine days of natural gas revenue could ensure one teacher per each primary school grade. Currently, because of funding shortages, teachers often have classes with as many as five different grades in them.
UNICEF stated that a 0.57 per cent increase in the actual tax collected on hardwood extraction would secure the annual salary of 6,000 social workers, that 0.87 per cent of revenues from new natural gas projects would provide for the purchase of all the vaccines needed annually in Myanmar, one extra dollar in tax collected for each kilogramme of jade could have built 14,596 classrooms over the last nine years, and that just over one quarter of Myanmar’s 2010 sales from the auction of precious and semi-precious stones could have provided for a universal child benefit of 15,000 kyat ($17) a month for all Myanmar children under five.
In the current fiscal year 2013-14 (ending March 31), Myanmar’s armed forces (officially) received a reduced 13.6 per cent of Myanmar’s national budget, and in the coming fiscal period that figure may be reduced to 12.26 per cent or $2.3 billion, Defense Minister Lt-Gen Wai Lwin said during the a parliament session on January 15. Between 3 and 5 per cent will go to health and education, respectively.
The minister said that the money would be used to cover military welfare, expenditures for vehicles and machineries, training at military academies and sending officers abroad to attend training. There is also spending on roads, bridged and other infrastructure, from which rural development would benefit, he added.
He added that Myanmar’s spending on the military is lower than Thailand’s with $ 5.39 billion annually, and Malaysia’s with $4.2 billion.
However, critics say that there is no checks-and-balance system in Myanmar to control the military spending, and the actual money that goes to military coffers may be much higher due to the military’s massive involvement in the country’s key economic sectors where money flows are not publicly revealed and tax evasion is rampant.
The picture shows the old junta of 2011 responsible for the 2012-13 budget of whom quite a few are in today’s government, eg. furthest to the left former Defense Ministry General Shwe Mann, today Lower House Speaker, second left today’s president Thein Sein and third left former intelligence chief Kyaw Win.
why are there still the print image of the old military generals. it is invalid to present that photo today,