EAC increases budget for 2009/2010 fiscal year

DAR ES SALAAM, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) has
increased its annual budget by 34 percent for the 2009/2010 fiscal year with a
total budgeted amount of 54.25 million U.S. dollars.

Of the budgeted total, 50.6 percent is meant for development expenditure
while the rest is meant for recurrent and emolument expenditures, according to
Monique Makaruliza, secretary of the EAC Council of Ministers.

The secretary also unveiled that 51.5 percent of the budget would be
contributed by the five EAC member states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania
and Uganda while the rest would be contributed by development partners.

The 2009/2010 budget will focus on such issues as consolidating the
community's customs union, finalizing the negotiations of the community's
envisaged common market protocol and promoting intra-community trade and
investment.

The five countries combine to cover 1.9 million square kilometers, to have
120 million people and to enjoy a gross domestic product of 47 billion U.S.
dollars.

Though budgeted with 23.41 million dollars for the 2008/2009 fiscal year,
the regional integration bloc of five countries is expected to spend to the tune
of 40.49 million dollars for that budgeted period.

Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are each budgeted to contribute 5.6
million dollars toward the community's 2008/2009 budget while Burundi is
budgeted to contribute 1 million dollars.

Israeli cabinet approves 2009-2010 budget

JERUSALEM, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli cabinet Wednesday voted to pass
the 2009-2010 budget, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported.

Despite opposition from Shas party, a key coalition partner, Israeli
cabinet approved the budget, with 26 cabinet ministers voting for the bill while
the four Shas ministers against it, said the report.

Following the cabinet approval, the budget will now have to be approved by
Israel's Knesset (parliament).

The vote came hours after marathon late-night negotiations produced an
agreement for an across-the-board cut of 5 percent to all government ministry
budgets, and a raising of value-added-tax by 1 percent.

As part of the deal, the defense budget is expected to be cut by 1.5
billion shekels (about 365 million U.S. dollars). Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak, as well as officials in his ministry, had opposed any such cuts.

Meanwhile, local daily Ha'aretz reported that value-added-tax will also be
applied to fruits and vegetables for the first time in Israel's history, which
is expected to add 1.8 billion shekels to the government coffers over the next
two years. (1 U.S. dollar equals 4.1 Israeli shekels)

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Opposition says Australian to face high taxes and interest rates

Newly elected opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull is seen speaking during a news conference in Jakarta in this April 9, 2007 file photo.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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CANBERRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Australians could face higher taxes and higher interest rates for a decade or more to pay for the federal government's 100 billion Australian dollars (73 billion U.S. dollars) spending in the past year, the federal opposition said on Sunday.

"I understand why they have some deficit and some
debt, but the problem is they have nearly committed up to 100 billion Aust
dollars (73 billion U.S. dollars) in new initiatives since the last budget,"
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Television.

Treasurer Wayne Swan will hand down the 2009/10
budget on Tuesday, which has been expected to show the deficit growing by up to
70 billion Aust dollars (51.1 billion U.S. dollars) and tax revenue down by 200
billion Aust dollars (144 billion U.S. dollars) over the next four years because
of the global financial crisis.

Turnbull will deliver the coalition's response to the
budget on Thursday.

"We will be responsible, we will not be reckless,
will be fair dinkum with the Australian people about what can be afforded, we
will give detailed policies with full costings prior to the next election,"
Turnbull said.

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Iranian president submits $89-billion budget

TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday submitted to Majlis (parliament) an 890-trillion-rial (89-billion-U.S. dollar) budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21), the official IRNA news agency reported.

Noting that "the government has made great efforts to reduce the country's dependence on oil resources," Ahmadinejad said the falling oil prices have "created an opportunity for a structural change in the budget and decreasing dependence on oil resources."

"While economizing the expenses in the budget bill, the government has allocated more expenditures to health and treatment, water, agriculture, environment and natural resources in the next year budget bill," he was quoted as saying.

The budget is based on global oil prices of 37.5 dollars per barrel, much lower than the high of nearly 147 dollars seen in the middle of 2008.

The Iranian economy is dominated by oil and gas exports which constituted 70 percent of government revenue as of 2008.

High oil prices in recent years have enabled "Iran to amass nearly 80 billion U.S. dollars in foreign exchange reserves." Yet the increased revenue has not eased economic hardships, which include double-digit unemployment and "inflation which climbed to 26 percent as of December 2008," said the report.

Iran had the highest annual inflation rate among Middle East countries, according to the report of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) released in November.

CBI chief Mahmoud Bahmani said on Saturday that the country would reduce the inflation rate in the following months.