€57.6b budget proposed to parliament

The government on Monday submitted its budget proposal for 2020 to parliament, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance.

In the proposal, revenue is estimated at EUR 55.6 billion and the appropriations proposed amount to EUR 57.6 billion.

The budget proposal is EUR 2.0 billion in deficit. The contents of the proposal are summarised in the ministry’s Budget Review.

The government also submitted to parliament its proposal for the third supplementary budget for 2019.

The supplementary budget proposes one-off payments totalling EUR 237 million in compensation to municipalities in order to avoid having to duplicate the effect of the holiday bonus cut in making adjustments to the distribution of cost liability.

Payment of the compensation will be brought forward from 2020 in order to offset lower than usual municipal tax revenue due to the tax card reform and other circumstances. In addition, the supplementary budget proposes to reduce the tax revenue estimate by EUR 443 million.

The government also reached agreement on the general government fiscal Plan for 2020–2023.

In addition, the government approved its Stability Programme and Draft Budgetary Plan to be submitted to the EU. These documents are required for economic policy coordination in the EU.