Eurasia Press & News
The Serbian government is expected to adopt a rebalancing of the 2009 budget at Thursday’s session.
Even though it was stated on Wednesday that the budget proposal was adopted by the government’s chief councils, according to Belgrade’s B92 network, the Finance Ministry was working into the late hours of the night on accompanying laws for the rebalance. This legislation includes the law for decreasing wages in the public administration and public services, and the regulations for pre-registering vehicles with licences from other countries.
Government sources confirmed for B92 that the income in the budget, which was first projected to be 698.7 billion dinars (€7.4 billion) will be 650 billion (€6.9 billion).
Expenses will be decreased as well. The deficit in the budget will be increased from 50 billion dinars (€532 million) to 70 billion (€744 million) after the rebalance.
The proposal for the 2009 budget rebalance will be accompanied with new laws and be placed before the government on Thursday morning.
The government is also expected to discuss two bills.
The first is related to the decrease of wages in the public administration by 10 per cent on wages greater than 40,000 dinars (€425) and 15 per cent on wages greater than 100,000 dinars (€1,063).
The second law relates to the pre-registration of vehicles with registered plates from other countries.
The public is also expected to find out how much the government will increase taxes on properties which are considered a luxury, such as villas, yachts, private jets and luxury cars. An increase in taxes on the mobile phone service by 10 per cent has also been announced, with an increase in excises on diesel and other fuel from two to four dinars.
The adoption of the rebalance and accompanying laws is a condition set by the International Monetary Fund so it can forward assistance to the Serbian government worth some €3 billion on May 11.
