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As the documents available to APA and ORF show, the expenses for the crisis of the crown remain high. The federal budget deficit is estimated at 21 billion euros. The opposition is outraged that more fiscal reforms are not included in the financial plan until 2024. However, the government is trying to emphasize thematic priorities.
According to figures leaked on Friday, government spending will exceed its revenue in the coming year with a good 97 billion euros to 21 billion euros. The general public deficit, which is decisive at the level of the EU, including federal states and municipalities, is estimated at 6.3% of economic output (gross domestic product / GDP). It would be slightly higher than expected by the economic research institutes WIFO and IHS (6.1 and 4.7 percent, respectively). For comparison: this year a decrease of almost 10 percent is expected.
The government estimates that the crown’s relief measures will be at least nine billion euros next year, with four reserved for the fixed-cost subsidy for businesses and 1.5 billion euros for part-time work. The planned economic stimulus package mainly includes well-known measures, such as the reduction of the entry tax rate that came into effect this year. No further tax cuts have been budgeted for yet.
Therefore, the SPÖ and the FPÖ reminded the government of their promise made in spring to also reduce the second and third level of rates for wages and income tax in 2022. “A great success looks different,” criticized the spokesman FPÖ budget, Hubert Fuchs. The vice president of the SPÖ, Jörg Leichtfried, also asked for more funds for the labor market in addition to the “consumer turbo” of a tax reduction: “This budget is the document of the government’s self-abandonment in the face of the greatest economic and labor crisis of the Second Republic “.
In fact, the government wants to increase funding for labor market service qualification and training measures in the next two years. Converted into persistently high unemployment, this does not mean a real increase, but a return to the level of 2017 and 2018, before the abolition of “Aktion 20,000” and the year of integration.
The government refers to the “huge budget challenges.” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) said that obtaining jobs is the “main objective”. “We not only want to overcome this crisis well, we want to come out of it stronger,” said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP). Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) also wants to promote the “ecological restructuring of the economy and transport”: “We will be able to fight the health crisis with a vaccine in 2021, the climate crisis will remain our greatest common challenge for decades to come.”
Thus, the government highlighted its priorities in the 2021 budget: around 300 million euros for climate protection in transport, 250 million euros in investments in the digitization of schools, 100 million euros in care and 120 million euros in cyber defense and disaster control in the military. . Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) is one of the surprise winners of the next budget: the cuts planned for her in the spring will be reversed.
NEOS outraged that the figures were leaked ahead of Blümels’ budget speech at the National Council on Wednesday. “Parliament is not an annoying boot club, the finance minister’s office is not a hobby,” criticized the club’s deputy director, Nikolaus Scherak. He asked Blümel to send the figures to parliament immediately.
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