black-market exchange rate as of February 2021 was fluctuating around 29 to 30 manats to the dollar. As of mid-April, the black-market manat-dollar exchange rate had slid to 40 manat to the dollar. Fiscal policy The government budget is developed and implemented in accord with the Law “On Budget System”. The law fixes the legal foundations of organizing management and operating the budget system, and regulates interrelations between budgets at all levels. The government of Turkmenistan discusses the state budget draft and submits it to the President of Turkmenistan. One month prior to the beginning of the fiscal year the President of Turkmenistan submits to the Assembly of Turkmenistan (Mejlis) the state budget draft for consideration and adoption. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is responsible for state finances. Budget statistics are unreliable because the government spends large amounts of extra-budgetary funds. The 2021 budget of the Turkmenistan government totals 79.5 billion manats of revenue, down from 84.39 billion manats in 2020, and 103.57 billion manats in 2017. The 2021 expenditure budget was set at 72.1 billion manats. The Central Bank of Turkmenistan controls the issue of money, but does not publish data on the money supply. The Central Bank promotes cashless transactions. In the January–April period of 2020, the volume of cashless transactions using debit cards slightly more than tripled compared to the same period in 2019, to just under 1.9 billion manat. This shift from cash to electronic payments was not without problems; shortages of cash in automatic teller machines and inadequate availability of card payment facilities at points of sale were reported. At least one non-governmental organization has openly called the economy of Turkmenistan a kleptocracy. Industry In the post-Soviet era, Turkmenistan's industrial sector has been dominated increasingly by the fuel and cotton processing industries to the detriment of light industry. Between 1991 and 2004, some 14 new cotton-processing plants were opened, sharply increasing the capability of processing domestically produced cotton. The construction industry depends mainly on government building projects because construction of private housing is a low priority. Natural gas See also Turkmenistan / Natural gas and export routes Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves are estimated at 50 trillion cubic meters. Turkmenistan's major gas deposits were discovered in its central and eastern areas in the 1940s and 1950s, and in the 1980s the republic became the second largest producer of gas in the Soviet Union, behind the