MPP faction will not back salary cut

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its regular meeting on Monday, a parliamentary faction of the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) discussed a draft clarification of the 2015 budget and a bill on the 2016 budget. According to the draft law on 2016 budget, salaries of some 2,900 political and state administrative servants will be cut by up to 30% from the next year, "but we will not back this decision, because it will worsen the situation in times of crisis, in contrary, salaries must be added," said the faction head S.Byambatsogy. In order to do so, he went on, all possible expenses must be cut such as money for working trips to localities and abroad and for meetings and discussions. He also emphasized that the government must focus on minimizing petroleum prices instead of increasing the excise tax on petroleum. “Mongolians still buy very expensive petroleum, elsewhere its prices have already fallen twice," he noted. He added that their faction reached an agreement to have parliament discussed a bill on reducing interest of pension loans.