BRATISLAVA, October 5, (WEBNOVINY) — The Coalition Council will have on its agenda on Thursday a 2012- 2014 state budget draft. The Cabinet was scheduled to discuss the draft form the Finance Ministry’s workroom on Wednesday, but the finance minister withdrew the draft after coalition leaders failed to achieve an agreement on budgetary priorities for 2012 on Tuesday. According to the law on budgetary rules, the deadline for the Cabinet to send the budget draft to parliament is October 15 so Cabinet ministers still have time until next week to approve it.
The Finance Ministry originally submitted already the new wording of the draft for the Cabinet’s sitting this Wednesday as after submitting the first version, the development on global markets forced them to revise the macroeconomic outlook for next year. The budgetary target for public finances remains unchanged and the ministry insists on narrowing the budget gap from this year’ planned 4.9 percent of GDP to next year’s projection at 3.8 percent of GDP.
Coalition partners are yet to meet on concrete priorities of individual departments. The Finance Ministry named as the sole priorities those that were already part of the first version: departments of education and transport and nothing has changed with it in the updated version. MOST-HID Deputy Chairman Zsolt Simon criticized the adjusted draft. He complained that the Finance Ministry turns a deaf ear to priorities of his party in the second draft while priorities of Miklos’ SDKU-DS are met to a hundred percent. Simon added that the draft budget harms citizens in rural areas, which he considers a serious problem.
SITA