BRATISLAVA, December 17, (WEBNOVINY) — President Ivan Gasparovic signed into law the 2011 state budget bill, his spokesman Marek Trubac informed. According to the law adopted by parliament, the state budget should have 13.148 billion euro in revenues and 16.958 billion euro expenses in 2011. The budget deficit is expected to be 3.81 billion euro. The deficit of the general government as a whole, considering all public institutions, not only the state, should be 4.9 percent GDP.
According to the law on the state budget, next year the department with most funds including money from European structural funds will be the Ministry of Education (2.337 billion euro), followed by the Labor Ministry (2.01 billion euro) and the Ministry of Transport (1.89 billion euro). The opposition has been criticizing the fact that according to them the government is reducing the budget deficit at the expense of the people, increasing taxes and lowering their incomes. The coalition MPs opposed that the measures on both income and expense side of the budget are necessary because of the way the previous government managed public funds.
SITA