The Slovenia Times

Parliament Opens Debate on Supplementary Budget

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Changes are needed because budget receipts have been lower than planned, while some of the outlays had been planned too low in the budget document passed in November 2013.

With the expenditure exceeding revenue by an extra EUR 197m, the planned deficit is being increased to 3.4% of GDP from 3.2% envisaged in the original budget and stated in Slovenia's commitment to the EU.

"As we reviewed the budget and forecasts of economic growth and other indicators and checked revenue and expenditure, we found we cannot stick to the target deficit," Finance Minister DuĊĦan Mramor said in October.

Considering the new government had not assumed office until the second half of September, the present proposal does not include structural measures but merely savings and redistribution of expenditure.

The proposal reduces budget revenue by EUR 20m to EUR 8.6bn. Even though income from assets and other non-tax revenue will have exceeded the planned figure by EUR 300m, the effect will be all but nullified through a loss of tax receipts.

New calculations estimate tax take to the tune of EUR 6.6bn, nearly EUR 232m less than originally planned, the main reason being the annulment of the real tax act, which was to fetch EUR 205m.

Tax revenue is down due to lower estimated take from the personal income tax and excise, but plans have been trumped in value added tax and corporate income tax.

The estimated receipts from the latter tax are higher because of the tax rate being kept at 17% and because of the transfer of past company losses being limited to 50% of the amount.

The government has also reassessed EU fund drawing possibilities, reducing the planned income from the common European budget by EUR 84m to EUR 1.1bn.

However, a much bigger impact on the deficit is a EUR 177m increase in expenditure. The latter will total EUR 9.8bn under the proposed supplementary budget.

At EUR 151m, interest rate costs had been planned too low, which Finace Minister Mramor says is understandable considering the amount of the bank bailout had not been known until the result of the bank stress tests in late 2013.

Slovenia plans to pay back EUR 3.6bn of debt this year with fresh borrowing planned at EUR 5.9bn. The state has took out almost EUR 6.2bn in debt this year, also for the implementation of the 2015 budget.

The Statistics Office has estimated the public debt to EUR 25.4bn or 70.4% of GDP as of the end of 2013, which is to increase to EUR 30.3bn or 82.2% of GDP at the end of 2014.

Transfers to the pension purse are being increased by EUR 124m to EUR 1.6bn.

More funds are also being earmarked for public railway and road transportation services, the closure of the Trbovlje-Hrastnik coal mine, as well as research and compensation payments, such as to the erased.

The supplementary budget is accompanied by changes to the 2014 and 2015 budgets implementation act, a technical law in which a 15-day period would be set for request for EU funds reimbursements.

The supplementary budget is based on the projection of a 2% economic growth made by the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, the government economic forecaster.

Exports remain the main engine of recovery, with private consumption expected to increase too, albeit to a lesser extent.

Investment has been higher than projected mainly due to a high growth in EU-funded public infrastructure in the first half of the year, which has in turn also led to higher general government expenditure.

The parliamentary working bodies will be debating the supplementary budget from Tuesday to Friday, to be followed on Saturday by a session of the Finance and Monetary Policy Committee as the only committee which adopts amendments to the budget and then forwards them to the plenary session.

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