The plenary was called for 14:00. It did not open. By the parliament’s own notice, 52 of 126 members had registered, 41.3%, against the 50% the rules require, and the Speaker, S. Byambatsogt, moved the sitting to 21 September and the following one to Tuesday. The notice lists what is waiting: winter preparation, the harvest, energy security, fuel shortages and rising prices.
Sixty-eight seats belong to the Mongolian People’s Party, enough for a quorum on its own; 44 of its members registered. Twenty-four were absent. The Democratic Party, which took a recess on Tuesday over the 2027 budget’s figures, registered 1 of 42. At 16:20 the parliament’s attendance page still showed 52, ikon.mn reported.
The day’s schedule, in ikon.mn’s account at 13:52, had the prime minister presenting the release of S. Amarsaikhan, the justice and home affairs minister he removed on Wednesday, and the appointment of a successor. The MPP’s Leadership Council had settled on Thursday on G. Temuulen, a member of parliament. After the minister came the amendment to the 2026 budget framework statement and the amendment to the Budget Stability Law that the joint committees approved on Wednesday, the one that strikes the base expenditure ceiling and the base balance from the rule’s 9 indicators.
Forty-two Democrats cannot outvote 68, but they can stay away, and on Thursday 24 of the 68 were absent too.
Across the building the Democratic Party spent its morning at its own briefing in the State Palace. Its speakers counted 430 appointments since 2024 and a 65th minister, said inflation would reach 11.5% if the budget amendment passed, citing Mongolbank, and put a figure on state companies: 8.4 trillion tugrik of violations in the 2025 audit of 95 of them, on balance sheets of 100 trillion. MP O. Shijir announced an initiative for a temporary committee to examine state companies’ budgets and spending; the party’s line was that the majority talks about seats and not about the budget.
That afternoon the finance ministry’s account of the 2027 draft came out. Its state secretary, M. Sanjaadorj, in Montsame’s report at 16:51: expenditure of 43.6 trillion tugrik, revenue of 41.3 trillion, a deficit of 2.306 trillion or 2% of GDP; pensions and benefits up 10%; public-service pay up 10% and administrative and special-service pay up 20%; a further 1.8 trillion for mortgages, reaching about 16,000 borrowers. The draft also carries a stepped wage tax: nothing on monthly wages up to 792,000 tugrik, 10% up to 10 million, 15% between 10 and 15 million and 20% above that.
Mongolbank’s Monetary Policy Committee held the policy rate at 12.5% on Thursday. August inflation was 12.5% nationally, down 0.5 points, 11.6% in Ulaanbaatar and 6.8% on the core measure; the bank expects inflation to ease from the second quarter of 2027 and to approach the upper end of its target band by the end of that year, and it puts growth in the first half at 7.7%.
The rewrite of the 2026 budget has passed 2 readings and needs a third; the fiscal rule is being amended for the second time in 3 weeks; and the 2027 draft is written to the amended rule, at the same 2% deficit the Audit Office put on the rewrite. All three need a floor the majority could not fill on Thursday. Forty-two Democrats cannot outvote 68, but they can stay away, and on Thursday 24 of the 68 were absent too.
The cost of the delay is on the Speaker’s own list. The pension rise from 1 November sits inside the rewrite, funded by the coal company’s 1.5 trillion tugrik dividend, and Monday’s sitting is the next chance to move the windfall toward the date the government named. Monday is the watch: the minister, the third reading, the rule.