Budget Deficit for This Year at EUR 383.5M
The government has adopted a supplementary budget bill for 2005 which sets the budget deficit at SIT 91.9bn (EUR 383.49m) or 1.4% of GDP. The original 2005 budget, passed by parliament in December 2003, anticipated budget deficit of SIT 112bn (EUR 467.37m) or 1.7% of GDP.
Under the proposal presented by Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk on Thursday, budget revenues will amount to SIT 1683.045bn (EUR 7.023bn), or SIT 63.9bn (EUR 266.65m) more than in the original budget, while budget expenditures are to increase by SIT 41.7bn (EUR 174.01m) to SIT 1774.985bn (EUR 7.407bn).
The framework supplementary budget bill adopted by the government in mid-April envisaged that the budget was to be cut to SIT 92.7bn (EUR 386.83m). However in the subsequent negotiations, the government managed to reduce the budget to SIT 91.9bn (EUR 383.49m).
"The reduction of the deficit is a good guarantee that we can introduce the euro according to the timetable," Bajuk said following the government session at which the proposal was adopted.
The government hopes to secure an additional SIT 20.6bn (EUR 85.96m) in tax revenues, SIT 28.8bn (EUR 120.2m) more in non-tax revenues, SIT 1.8bn (EUR 7.51m) in capital revenues and donations and SIT 12.7bn (EUR 53m) more in EU funds than anticipated in the original budget. Slovenia thus expects to receive a total of SIT 115.9bn (EUR 483.64m) in EU funds.
Expenditures are to be SIT 41.7bn (EUR 174m) higher than originally planned, with contributions to the EU budget increasing by SIT 17.5bn (EUR 73m) to SIT 90.3bn (EUR 376.8m), Bajuk said.
According to him, the government secured additional funds for various purposes at the total amount of SIT 70bn (EUR 292.1m). The total for investments is anticipated to increase by SIT 32bn (EUR 133.5m), 23% up over what was invested in 2004.
Additional funds were secured for those items where the originally planned funds were too low or not planned at all. An additional SIT 9.4bn (EUR 39.2m) is thus anticipated for wages and social insurance contributions of state administration employees.
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