BRATISLAVA, August 2, (WEBNOVINY) — The Finance Ministry currently negotiates with individual ministries about the outline of the 2012 state budget. Then, before August 15, its proposal is to be submitted to the Cabinet session. According to Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, his ministry set fundamental priorities for preparing the budget, among which are railway and road infrastructure, education, and health care. “We’re proposing the highest increase among all departments in these,” explained Miklos at a press conference this Tuesday. He, however, also said that these priorities do not need to be a part of the proposal submitted to the Cabinet, as it is still being intensely elaborated on.
Miklos confirmed that the total sum of funds demanded by all ministries is high above the budget possibilities. According to him, these are limited mostly by income of the public budget and by the necessity to curb the general government deficit. The ministry also plans income from privatization, which could be used to eliminate the debt of hospitals which, according to his Ministry’s data, increased their debts by EUR 100 million since the beginning of the year.
According to the law on the general government budget rules, the Finance Ministry should submit the complete proposal of next year’s budget until August 15 to the Cabinet, unless it sets a later deadline. Cabinet is then obliged to decide on the budget before September 30 and should submit it to the Parliament before October 15. If the Parliament fails to adopt the budget before the New Year starts, state finances are governed by a provisional budget, the one that was used in the previous year, until a regular one is adopted.
SITA