HARARE - Members of Parliament will spend this week analysing the 2013 national budget in various portfolio committees.

Today, there will be a post-budget seminar by the House of Assembly’s portfolio committees that will thoroughly analyse the spending plan. Each committee will have separate meetings.

The first meeting will be to analyse the budget proposals for the various government ministries which the committee oversees.

This will be done with the assistance of officials of the ministries concerned and other stakeholders. These meetings will be open to the public.

The second set of meetings will not be open to the public. They will be for deliberations and preparation of the committee’s report for presentation when debate on the budget resumes in the House of Assembly.

After the hearings, the chairpersons of the 20 Parliament portfolio committees will present a reports to Parliament on their findings.

Parliament last week adjourned to November 27, to give a chance to legislators to analyse the budget before debating it.

Debate on the Finance and Appropriation Bill (2012) will only commence when the House of Assembly resumes sitting.

Minister of Finance Tendai Biti last Thursday presented a national budget of $3,8 billion, and the spending plan now comes under scrutiny by the legislature.