At the its regular meeting on April 8, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Science supported the package measures to protect the health and income of citizens, save jobs and stimulate the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the bill on exempting social insurance premium payment, support through unemployment insurance fund and exempting the penalty for late filing of social insurance premiums.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection S.Chinzorig mentioned that 45,000 employers and 572,000 workers of entities will be exempted from social insurance premium and income tax if the bill is approved. In addition, 186,000 self-employed and voluntary social insurance payers will be covered. In total, more than 800,000 citizens will be exempted from social insurance premium at the cost of 800 billion MNT.

There are 1.1 million people work in Mongolia and 800,000 will be exempted from social insurance payments. In other words, about 75 percent of all workers are eligible for exemptions.

The majority of the standing committee’s members supported the proposal to include teachers and staff of state-owned universities in social insurance premium and income tax exemptions.

The Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Science passed on the bill for further review to the Standing Committee on Budget. 

Standing Committee on Budget

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget convened on April 8 at 4:40 p.m.

First, the standing committee discussed the package measures to protect the health and income of citizens, save jobs and stimulate the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the bill on exempting the social insurance premium payment, support through unemployment insurance fund and exempting penalty for late filing of social insurance premium, custom duty and value-added tax.

The Standing Committee on Budget voted on the principled differences between the proposals of the bill’s drafters, the Standing Committee on Economy and Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Science.

In particular, the majority of the standing committee’s members supported the resolution on exempting income tax for individuals.

Moreover, the proposal on amendments to exempt custom duty and VAT starting February 19 until June 30, was supported by 61.5 percent of the standing committee members.

At the main session, Member of Parliament N.Amarzaya will present these proposals and conclusions discussed by the Standing Committee on Budget.

Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy

At its regular meeting, the Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy decided on seven issues with a 52.6 percent attendance on April 8.

First, the package measures to protect the health and income of citizens, save jobs and stimulate the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and draft amendments to Law on International Agreement were approved for parliamentary discussion.

Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar said, “Measures aimed to stimulate the economy and improve social welfare services need to be approved urgently in connection with the immediate situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of heightened state of readiness nationwide.”

As there were no oppositions, the issue was to be transferred over to the Standing Committee on Budget for further review.

Moreover, the additional funding agreement on Sustainable Living-3 project, being co-implemented by the World Bank and International Development Association, and the funding agreement for “Increasing efficiency of heat supply of Ulaanbaatar” project would be transferred to Cabinet.

The standing committee decided to introduce the funding agreement on stimulating the livestock sector and amendments to the Law on International Agreement at the main session.