Expense of State-owned businesses will hit US$8 billion in the coming fiscal year and corruption is likely to be in some businesses if there is no significant reform, according to a report from MATA (Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability). 

The report says the expense of State-owned enterprises may reach K7,600 billion (US$5 billion) this fiscal year (2018-2019). Without significant reform, the expense will hit US$8 billion, one third of the entire Union Budget, next financial year. The report is titled "Did mismanagement of natural resources lead to corruption and resource curses?" 

Some State-owned businesses are making a loss while there may still be corruption in some businesses despite earning large sums of foreign exchange, the report points out. 

Currently, 31 State-owned businesses are in operation and supplementary budget for 2018-2019 fiscal year demanded by those businesses making losses hit more than double of the total budget. This is the largest amount in eight years, the MATA report highlights. 

This fiscal year, the losses made by 10 State-owned enterprises including the Electric Power Generation Enterprise, Myanma Railways and News and Periodicals Enterprise amounted to over K833 billion.