Skopje, 31 July 2024 (MIA) – The Parliament's Finances and Budget Committee continues the amendment debate on the 2024 Budget revision for the third day. In line with the Rules of Procedure, the amendment discussion is scheduled to last six days. Fifty-eight amendments were submitted to the budget revision motion, but some of them were withdrawn by the proposers during the debate.  

The Finances and Budget Committee has not approved any amendment so far. 

During Tuesday's debate, the Committee did not approve six amendments submitted by the European Front over arrangement of riverbeds.

Deputy Finance Minister Nikolche Jankulovski said funds for that purpose were provided by the European Investment Bank with a decision signed by Artan Grubi on August 7, 2023.

Another amendment over riverbed arrangement in the Municipality of Zelenikovo, submitted by MP Monika Zajkova of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was neither approved for the same reason.

Previously, several amendments submitted by SDSM were not approved, including an amendment over rewarding firefighters, police officers and army members engaged in extinguishing the wildfires, as well as an amendment on increasing the firefighters’ salaries.  

According to Deputy Finance Minister Nikolche Jankulovski, a new legislation on firefighters is being drafted to regulate these issues. In addition, he noted, there are not enough funds in the budget and the rebalance is only done to service the obligations until the end of the year due to poor projections and reckless spending by the previous government.

Three amendments submitted by Sali Murati of the European Front were also rejected. 

Total revenues in the Budget revision are planned at 318.2 billion denars, while expenditures are set at 362.8 billion denars. GDP growth is projected at 2.1 percent, inflation at 3.5 percent, and the budget deficit at 4.9 percent.

When adopting the Budget revision, the government also approved several conclusions proposed by the Ministry of Finance. Among these is the requirement that, when concluding collective agreements, budget users should take into account the approved budget funds and not undertake obligations for which there are no allocated funds in the budget for the current year. Additionally, public enterprises and state-owned joint-stock companies will need to seek an opinion from the Ministry of Finance. The Union of workers in administration, judiciary and civic associations (UPOZ) reacted to this, asking whether the suspension of collective agreements is on the horizon.

The VMRO-DPMNE parliamentary group expects the Budget revision to be adopted in the second week of August.

Photo: MIA archive