By Kh. KHALIUN

Although the State Great Khural planned to discuss 12 issues on February 15, a quickly approaching recess kept many members silent.
The first issue raised was that of the Election of Provinces. Members made no comments on the draft laws, presented by Z. Enkhbold and D. Lundeejantsan. Due to the lack of time the State Great Khural decided to approve the draft laws immediately. The two drafts law are different in principle, so their merger may prove difficult. They will be sent back to the Standing Committee to be reworked until they are ready to be approved.
The Draft Law on the 39th regulation of the State Great Khural regarding the usage of Tavan Tolgoi (TT) Mine was also discussed. Two draft laws have been presented and merged by D. Odbayar and Ya. Batsuuri.

Previously the 39th regulation dictated that the public receive 20% of TT shares. New changes would only require up-to 20%.
An edited entry of ‘up-to one 20% shares’ may be written in the Human Development Book of every citizen.
Every citizen has the choice to receive one million MNT in cash or shares. If someone wants to receive cash they must sell their shares to the Government before the TT IPO is made.
Ya. Batsuuri questioned this, saying, “According to the research of the working group, it’s not possible for citizens with low income to receive their dividend per share. So they will prefer to take the one million MNT in cash. Also students, the elderly, and people with developmental disabilities may not receive shares. It will violate the concept of granting resources equally to every citizen. And is there enough money in the fund if every Mongolian citizen wants to receive their one million MNT in cash?”
The Chairman of Standing Committee on the Economy R. Bud responded, “The base of your draft law remains. The money from shares that are sold to economic entities will be submitted to the State Budget. 330.00 million MNT has already been submitted. Parliament has completed its research and found that approximately 50 percent of Mongolians will receive cash.”
There were proposals that has different concepts, so will be returned to the Standing Committee to discuss it again and make a final discussion.
The third issue raised dealt with the draft law to grant tax exemption on the 2500 automatic voting machines that will be used in the 2012 election.
The State Great Khural gave 24 million MNT for General Committee of Election (GCE), but due to the rise of the exchange rate the submitted budget for the GCE is insufficient. To deal with this State Great Khural created the draft law to make voting machines exempt from taxes.
Issues about the legislative circumstance of lawyers, the draft law amending the Law of Advocacy, and the budget amendment amongst others were sent back to Standing Committees after limited debate.