“The budget should be prepared in such a way that it is the best for the next government and the next four-year cycle. A hastily prepared budget is a waste of the state's capacities,” said Prime Minister Ludovit Odor this during Thursday's Q&A session in the parliament.
"It is a difficult task to prepare a detailed budget in such a short period of time. Every other government has had nine and a half months to do this, it is difficult to make a full budget in two months," Odor pointed out.
With the current high level of public debt, the new government is subject to the strictest sanctions of the Budget Responsibility Act if it fails to win the confidence of Parliament. One of them is the obligation to prepare a balanced budget proposal for the following year. According to MP Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina), even if the new government wanted to prepare another, realistic budget with a deficit, the finance ministry cannot technically work on two budgets at the same time. He thus justified his proposal to present the draft budget earlier.
New Finance Minister Michal Horváth in an interview with TASR stated that the preparation of next year's budget would be easier if the new caretaker government were given the confidence of parliament. This would allow the Ministry of Finance to concentrate on preparing a realistic budget that would, on the one hand, manage the economy and, at the same time, steer Slovakia towards sustainable public finances.
Horváth reiterated that Slovakia's public finances are not in a good shape. If no measures are taken, policies on the revenue and expenditure side of the budget are set to continue with deficits of around 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the coming years. The poor state of public finances could also affect the future financing of the state. One of the priorities of the new government will therefore be to prepare a public finance recovery plan for the coming years.
Source: TASR
