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Exile parliament 2009-10 budget focus on activism

Tibet Sun

Speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile Penpa Tsering giving the closing remarks of the seventh session of the house in Dharamshala, India, on 27 March 2009. The House passed the 2009-10 budget session for the welfare of the Tibetans in exile that we focused on activism. Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

The Tibetan parliament-in-exile has been in session since 9 March, chaired by the new speaker Penpa Tsering, who took charge from Karma Choephel for the remaining two and half years of the 14th house. The session, which concluded yesterday, also held extensive deliberations on the current political status of Tibet.

It was the house’ budget session to pass the 2009-10 budget for the welfare of the 150,000 Tibetans in exile and for the cause of their fight for Tibetan autonomy. Considering the severe global economic crisis, the house while passing the budget called for cautious spending.

The major highlights with how much are allocated to different sectors are as follows (all in India rupees):

• Administration: The Private Office of the Dalai Lama, all the seven departments, autonomous bodies and the offices of Tibet: 336,982,052.00

• Education: 157,664,431.00

• Health: 102,906,527.00

• Home: 163,166,478.00

• Religious and Culture: 41,868,875.00

• Reception Centre for new arrivals from Tibet: 24,443,101.00

To commemorate 50 years in exile in India, and to express gratitude to India and its people for providing shelter over the past five decades, the exile government has set aside a budget of 12.23 million rupees. Different activities will be organised throughout the year.

Total: 827,031,464.00 or 16,325,601.403 USD

Percentage wise the budget is framed as follows:

• Campaign and Activism: 29%
• Welfare: 23%
• Education: 19%
• Health: 12%
• Administration: 9%
• Religious and Culture: 5%
• Legislation and Other vital needs: 3%

The exile government has a corpus fund of 394.59 million rupees in banks, out of which 270.66 million rupees is in the Reserve Bank of India.

The budget is financed by the tax collected from the exile Tibetans. A total of 74.86 million rupees is expected to come from taxation. Another major funds come from the office of the Dalai Lama, the government of India, and the funding agencies around the world.

1 USD = 50.6586 INR (as on 27 March 2009)

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