The Standing Committee on
the Budget did not approve on Tuesday a proposal to change the law on the Human
Development Fund to provide money for the Smokeless Ulaanbaatar program,
recently approved by Parliament and to cost MNT18.2 trillion until 2016. Work
on constructing apartments, using gas as car fuel and on roads will be part of
the program.

The government is relying on mining revenue
to fund the program but currently there is no legal sanction for the revenue to
be so used. That is why it was decided to amend the law on the Human
Development Fund to meet the financial needs of Smokeless Ulaanbaatar. All additionally
generated mining revenue goes into this fund. The current law allows the Fund
to finance only four types of activities: health, education, social insurance,
and apartment and housing.

The Government thinks that with copper price
on the increase, it will have enough in the Fund even after distribution of
MNT1.5 million to every citizen for use in Smokeless Ulaanbaatar.

Members of the committee, however, did not go
along with the government. MP O.Chuluunbat felt the program looked too
commercial and urged the Government not to get involved. MPs D.Zorigt and N.Batbayar
said the goals of the human development program do not tally with those of the
present program so they opposed the Fund paying for the latter. MP D. Arvin
said enough money has been allocated to infrastructure projects and the
priority now should be to distribute the money among people. MP Ts.Davaasuren asked
Minister of Environment and Tourism L.Gansukh to scale down Smokeless
Ulaanbaatar as the project aims to tackle too many social issues at the same
time. It is not realistic, he said, to ask for an amount equal to almost eight
years’ state budget, for the project.

The committee rejected the draft on majority
vote. It will now go to the Standing Committee on the Economy.