BRATISLAVA, December 3, (WEBNOVINY) – Slovakia’s Finance Minister Ivan Miklos presented the draft state budget for 2011 in parliament on Thursday evening. He described the budget as cost-saving and realistic. As stated when submitting the draft that public spending in 2011 compared with real expenditures in 2010 will decrease by almost six percent. „It is thus an austerity budget,“ said Miklos. He is convinced that the Cabinet submitted to parliament a good budget, which, although it also means taking difficult and unpopular measures, but they are necessary.
„The priority is that the impacts are distributed as fairly and that the most underprivileged and vulnerable groups are endangered as little as possible,“ said the Minister of Finance. He pointed out that despite cost savings in the budget, total expenditures of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family, will be higher year-on-year by 2.11 percent. This growth will help people in material need and families. More money in his will go for construction of roads and highways. As he continued, education, research and development are a priority for the government. „Teachers are the only group of public sector employees who were exempted from the reduction of the wage bill by 10 percent,“ he said. Increased public spending will also concern the health care system, where according to Miklos about 2.28 percent more public funds will be directed. „Although there will be a reduction in payments for state insureds, this will be more than offset by widening the base for calculation of health insurance contributions,“ said Miklos.
His predecessor, Jan Pociatek (opposition SMER-SD) pointed out that citizens will pay for the consolidation of public finances. „The current government is unable to save on the expenditure side of the budget,“ he maintains. He thinks that the current government will continue to raise taxes, levies and charges. He believes that the chosen method of consolidation will damage economic growth. According to Pociatek, disposable income will fall and prices of goods and services will rise, which will have a negative impact on household consumption.
Parliament opened its discussion on the Cabinet draft state budget for next year. The draft envisages a deficit of EUR 3.8 billion on EUR 13.1 billion in revenue and EUR 16.9 billion in expenditures. The general government deficit next year should reach 4.9 percent of GDP. Compared to the estimated deficit in 2010, this would mean a decline by almost three percentage points.
SITA