The principle of annual nature of budget and perennial budgeting

Abstract

The Legal nature of budgetary laws and the competence of Parliament and Government in budgeting process are major topics that researchers in public finance study in each country. What binds these subjects together are legal principles governing the budget acts and budgeting processes which are aimed at establishing the budgetary authority of the Executive and the Legislative. The importance of these legal imperatives lies in the historic campaign that led to their creation on the one hand, and their effectiveness on the other. Obviously, all these principles are subject to exceptions or have changed over time. In this paper, firstly we study the legal notion and nature of these rules briefly. Then, the emergence and transformation of annual and perennial nature of budget especially in Iranian context (1906 to 2016) will be examined. It is deduced that annual principle is politically still important but, economically its dysfunction has contributed to the emergence of perennial budgeting principle.

Keywords

• budget act
• annual budgeting
• perennial budgeting
• fiscal rules
• budget reform