At the session of the National Assembly, members of parliament discussed the proposal of amending budget for 2022, which reduces funds for investments and plans a deficit of as much as 1.7 billion euros in the last four months of this year, which is why we in SDS do not support it in any way. The position of the SDS parliamentary group was presented by MP Suzana Lep Šimenko.
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The supplementary proposal of the amending budget for 2022 predicts record revenues in the amount of 12.5 billion euros as well as record expenses in the amount of 14.58 billion euros. As a result of higher tax inflows, the budget will receive as much as 1.28 billion euros more. Two items in particular are increasing, i.e., corporate income tax and value added tax. In particular, the higher corporate income tax indicates good measures by the previous government. Despite the covid crisis, our economy came out of it in very good condition, which was acknowledged not least by the experts of the prestigious Economist weekly, who analysed the response to the epidemic and placed Slovenia in excellent second place.
The funds earmarked for investments in the 2022 budget are being reduced, especially under the item of new construction, reconstruction, and adaptation. You are really bad managers when it comes to investments. The current state of the budget on the Government’s website indicates the fact that you have currently spent only a good 30% of the funds planned for this year on investments. It is hard to imagine this, if we know that investments are the basis for better services and the life of citizens, and on the other hand, of course, they mean an additional stimulus to the economy, which is the engine of returning taxes to the state budget. And we are aware of the current situation in the construction market.
In the Parliamentary Group of the Slovenian Democratic Party, we note that this amending budget is not the least bit frugal, but as already mentioned, not at the expense of investments. It is more than obvious that the proposed amending budget will not solve the key problems that Slovenia has been facing in the last period, it will not solve the high cost of energy, it will not solve the ever-increasing living costs of citizens, here I am referring to vital expenses for food and energy products. Moreover, it will not solve problems in the field of healthcare, pensions, the labour market, and problems faced by young people.
Of course, problems need to be solved where they arise, that is, in electric energy companies, which are directly or indirectly more than 90 percent state-owned. Far too little has been done here so far. One of the key problems of the amending budget is certainly its deficit, which you estimate will amount to more than 2 billion euros at the end of the year.
As the Fiscal Council pointed out, in the last four months of this year, i.e., from September to December, you plan to create a deficit of 1.7 billion euros, and here we naturally wonder how, in August we had a deficit of 342 million euros, you have now withdrawn aid to the economy from 40 to 86 million euros, but this is far from enough, and of course we wonder how you will manage to process the 1.7 billion euro deficit in four months.
The problem we see in the Parliamentary Group of the Slovenian Democratic Party is taxes. In the Slovenian Democratic Party, we are convinced that the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia and the economy are already taxed too much. The current coalition and the current government are of course convincing us otherwise, and right now, new laws will be introduced with which you want to repeal the really good measures that we adopted in the spring of this year here in the National Assembly with the Income Tax Act.
Except for those on the minimum wage, the wages of those with an average wage will also be reduced next year, because of course we are starting from the currently valid law, which provides for a gradual increase in the general allowance, and here you are misleading people en masse that those with an average wage will also have a higher wage next year compared to this year, true, compared to this year, but not compared to the currently valid law, which foresees 5 thousand 500 euros in general relief in the next year, and only this should rise to 7 thousand 500 euros.
In the Slovenian Democratic Party, we believe that this is a wrong policy. People must be paid decently for their work, and tax, family and social policies must be geared towards making it worthwhile for people to work, and not so that they end up speculating whether it is better to depend on social transfers, and to be on lower wages.
Despite the change in the Income Tax Act that has already been exposed this year, the income from income tax in this year’s budget is also rising by almost 51 million euros. The fact is that you draw European funds poorly, the fact is that despite 1.28 billion euros of higher tax inflows into the budget for 2022, you are increasing expenses by as much as 640 million. The fact is that you are reducing funds for investments and the fact is that you are planning a deficit of 1.7 billion euros in the budget in the last four months of this year.
