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Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) will present the budget next Wednesday. Millions will go mainly to the areas of transportation, environment, defense and labor market. The budget deficit will amount to about six percent of gross domestic product.
AUSTRIA. 97,000 million euros of spending will be offset by 76,000 million euros of income. The national debt remains high at 85 percent of economic output. In any case, the government itself speaks of “high challenges”, because the high investments in the labor market are due to the crisis in the Crown. On the one hand, there are more funds for training and qualification measures (“labor foundation”) amounting to 400 million euros (including unemployment benefits and even reduced working hours for 2,800 million euros). Despite the crisis, the government is willing to facilitate future investments. You don’t want to save on people. For Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), getting jobs has the highest priority. The Finance Minister wants to get out of the crisis “reinforced”. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens), for his part, continues to rely on the “ecological restructuring of the economy and transport”.
An economic stimulus package is also foreseen in the budget. This includes measures known as the carry-over of losses, the investment premium and the extension of the VAT reduction for the restaurant sector until the end of 2021, which is endowed with 1.5 billion euros.
More money for the army and justice
The crisis in the crown also affects other expenses. The Ministry of Health has a further 500 million euros at its disposal and the CoV fund is endowed with nine billion euros. The Minister of Transport, Leonore Gewessler, can expect 400 million euros more. The objective is to finance the expansion of public transport and entry to the “1-2-3 ticket”, among other things. For this year 95 million euros are available. ÖVP Minister of Education Heinz Faßmann receives 260 million euros more, the economic department a good 700 million euros. The budget for 2021 will be increased in the justice and defense departments.
Next wage tax cut uncertain
The tax reform measures announced at the beginning of the year – lowering the second and third tranches of salary taxes by 2022 – and the start of “greening” the tax system for 2021 are not included in the budget. However, it was said from government circles that the relevant talks had not yet concluded. It is also noted that the first stage of discharge was brought forward from 2021 to 2020.
Leichtfried: the government fails in the crisis
The SPÖ criticized the lack of funds to combat unemployment. “You can’t fight the crisis with that.” For example, there is an economic stimulus package for which most of the already known measures have been canceled again; In addition, the promised tax cut, “which would be a significant boost to consumption”, is apparently completely canceled, commented the club boss SPÖ on the key points of the budget that were released today. According to Leichtfried, the question of who is paying the costs of the crisis remains unanswered. Wealthy and online corporations would have to contribute zero to the crisis.
Crown crisis causes budget deficit of 9.4 percent
