BRATISLAVA, October 6, (WEBNOVINY) — Leaders of Slovakia’s ruling coalition parties are seeking agreement on the spending side of the draft state budget for 2012. The bill of the year on the general government’s budget for next year is on the agenda of Thursday’s Coalition Council session. According to Chairman of the Christian Democrats (KDH) Jan Figel, after debating budget revenues on Tuesday, leaders of the coalition parties are to debate the funding of priorities of individual parties on Thursday. Figel commented that he believes that changes that will improve the prospects in the health care sector, security and tourism will be made. The mentioned departments are headed by KDH ministers.
On Tuesday, 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. MOST-HID leader Bela Bugar, however, believes that sources for priorities can be found in further cost-cutting, such as dissolving some unnecessary state authorities. From the saved funds, new jobs could be created and sources from the social package preserved.
According to KDH leader Jan Figel, evaluating priorities of individual ministries based on party affiliation of the minister is not right. He believes that each ministry has its history, while investments in them differed. “Comparing solely based on shirt colors would be misleading,” Figel said.
The Finance Ministry has had to revise its macroeconomic prognoses in connection with the development on the global market. The latest version of the state budget, which makes up the better portion of public funds, counts on cash revenues of EUR 15.281 billion and expenditures of EUR 18.524 billion. The deficit should thus reach EUR 3.243 billion. This should represent 3.8 percent of next year’s GDP, while this year’s state budget gap is projected at 4.9 percent of GDP. This draft, however, does not take into account budget priorities of individual coalition parties. Finance Minister Ivan Miklos has stated several times that requirements of individual ministries exceed possibilities of the state budget, which he finds unacceptable.
SITA