Ruling officials claim budget is “developmental”

Parliamentary MPs debated the 2010 budget draft on Saturday, with ruling party officials claiming that the budget encourages development. The debate is scheduled to continue on Monday. Ruling officials claim budget is “developmental” Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic said that the draft budget has social components, and that it is must closer to international standards and more transparent than earlier budgets. However, the opposition attacked the budget, stating that it does not encourage development. Dragutinovic disagreed, however. “I can only answer that question with numbers—if 100bn of financial support is not developmental enough, I do not know what is,” she said. "By all criteria, this is a developmental budget,” Dragutinovic said. She also responded to the criticism that there is too much money being set aside for public companies, especially the Serbian Railway. “What I can say is that the only companies that the state subsidizes in normal times is the railway and research and development in agriculture. These are things that the state supports. Therefore, railways are financed everywhere in the world, they have the support of the state, and the same goes for Serbia,” she said. “The problem is maybe the speed of reforms in the railroad. The reform process is ongoing, but as is the case with all reforms, reforms here are obviously not fast enough as the MPs believe they should be,” Dragutinovic said. Nenad Popovic of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said that the budget is devastating, not developmental. “You cannot call it developmental when you increase the deficit from RSD 70 to 107bn, or EUR 400mn of additional budget deficit,” Popovic said. “If that deficit was pumped into the industry, then you could talk about development. But, since 80 percent of this figure goes towards public spending, this budget is devastating to the Serbian industry,” he said. Liberal Democratic Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic also criticized the budget draft. “State spending in this budget is a little smaller than was the case in 2009, but it is obvious that this cannot be called savings, nor is there any recognizable realization of the government’s promises given not only to the International Monetary Fund, but to the people of this country as well,” he said. On Monday, MPs will debate the draft law for additions to the law on pension-disability insurance. In addition, the rebalance of the 2009 will be proposed to the government for adoption next week as well. (Tanjug archive)

Ruling officials claim budget is “developmental”

Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović said that the draft budget has social components, and that it is must closer to international standards and more transparent than earlier budgets.

However, the opposition attacked the budget, stating that it does not encourage development.

Dragutinović disagreed, however.

“I can only answer that question with numbers—if 100bn of financial support is not developmental enough, I do not know what is,” she said.

"By all criteria, this is a developmental budget,” Dragutinović said.

She also responded to the criticism that there is too much money being set aside for public companies, especially the Serbian Railway.

“What I can say is that the only companies that the state subsidizes in normal times is the railway and research and development in agriculture. These are things that the state supports. Therefore, railways are financed everywhere in the world, they have the support of the state, and the same goes for Serbia,” she said.

“The problem is maybe the speed of reforms in the railroad. The reform process is ongoing, but as is the case with all reforms, reforms here are obviously not fast enough as the MPs believe they should be,” Dragutinović said.

Nenad Popović of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said that the budget is devastating, not developmental.

“You cannot call it developmental when you increase the deficit from RSD 70 to 107bn, or EUR 400mn of additional budget deficit,” Popović said.

“If that deficit was pumped into the industry, then you could talk about development. But, since 80 percent of this figure goes towards public spending, this budget is devastating to the Serbian industry,” he said.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Čedomir Jovanović also criticized the budget draft.

“State spending in this budget is a little smaller than was the case in 2009, but it is obvious that this cannot be called savings, nor is there any recognizable realization of the government’s promises given not only to the International Monetary Fund, but to the people of this country as well,” he said.

On Monday, MPs will debate the draft law for additions to the law on pension-disability insurance.

In addition, the rebalance of the 2009 will be proposed to the government for adoption next week as well.