Youth, energy and labor ministries see dramatic rise in budget allocations

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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The Youth and Sports Ministry, the Energy Ministry, and the Labor and Social Security Ministry have all seen a big increase in their share of the state budget in 2016, according to the cabinet’s newly announced Medium-Term Financial Plan. 

Due to the snap general election in November 2015, the state budget draft for 2016 could not be discussed in parliament and a temporary budget was prepared in the post-election period. Preparations for the 2016 state budget then started and the Medium-Term Financial Plan for 2016, 2017 and 2018 was recently revised. 

According to Anadolu Agency, the financial allocation ceilings for several public institutions were revised, while they were kept the same for others. The largest increase was seen by the Sports Ministry, the Energy Ministry and the Labor Ministry compared to the amounts defined in the previous plan. 

The allocation ceiling for the Youth and Sports Ministry was hiked from 171.5 million liras ($60 million) to 603.5 million liras ($200 million), marking a 251 percent increase compared to the previous plan. The fund ceiling for the Energy Ministry was increased to around 1.5 billion liras ($500 million), a 58 percent increase compared to the previous plan. The allocation ceiling for the Labor Ministry saw a rise to 38.4 billion liras ($12.7 billion), a hike of around 35 percent from the previous plan. 

Finance Ministry takes lions share

The largest three recipients of budget funds remained the same, topped by the Finance Ministry with around 133.9 billion liras ($44.3 billion), followed by the Education Ministry with around 76.3 billion liras ($25.2 billion) of state funds and the Treasury with around 73.2 billion liras ($24.2 billion). 

Meanwhile, the allocation ceiling was set at around 434 million liras ($143.6 million) for the Presidency and at around 1.1 billion liras ($364 million) for the Prime Ministry. 

The General Directorate of National Security was allocated around 21.1 billion liras ($7 billion) and the Defense Ministry was allocated around 26.4 billion liras ($8.7 billion).