The Mon State government has set aside K 100 million (100,000,000) for the annual Mon State Affairs budget. Although this represents an increase in budgetary allocation, according to Minister Dr. Min Kyi Win, a member of the Mon State government team, he believes it is not sufficient.

“100,000,000 kyats has been already spent for the Mon [affairs]. There is still a lot of money needed to spend on [other] Mon affairs. We will ask for more budget next year,” he said.

The budget period is scheduled from October 1st to the following year ending on September 30th, and now the increased Mon Affairs budget has already been used up just in the first quarter of the year.

In the total budget of 450,000,000 kyats, the Mon, Burmese and Pa-O affairs, have each been allocated K100 million, and K150 million is given to the Karen yearly, according to the State government budget plan.

The Mon Affairs budget line has received K 100 million, which includes 50,000,000 Kyat for the Mon National Day and another 50,000,000 Kyat for the closing ceremony of the Mon literature summer school. The budget is running out now.

There is no money to spend on activities for Mon Youth Day and for the Mon Writer events. These activities will need to be shared within the K 100 million budget. “It means more budget should be asked for,” he added.

The K 50 million budget, which is allotted for the closing ceremony of the Mon language school for the entire State, was scheduled to be received on January 16th. However, the money is not yet available due to the discrepancy in the title that was to be used for the event.

“According to the government’s policy, they gave sponsorship for exhibitions or organizing contests, so the event titles will be updated, and then the budget will be available,” said Nai Mon Rajaer, the Mon National Organizing Committee for the Ethnic Literature program.

Further adding to the budget crunch, last week, the Mon State government reportedly received a budget request for 9,000,000 kyats for events related to the Mon Writers Day and Mon Writers Association Conference. It is unclear how these events will be financed.

In the fiscal year 2016-2017, the Mon state budget tripled due to a rise in tax collections resulting in a surplus budget of 122.3 percent. Reports indicate that 13 Mon State government departments gave back more than K 1363 million during that fiscal year.