According to the members of the ruling coalition, the budget rebalancing, with which the government tries to reduce potential risks to public finances, is justified, while the opposition believes that with such a policy the executive power must constantly borrow in order to pay off basic positions in the state coffers.
The representative of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Petar Ivanovic, said that when talking about rebalancing, the budget changes by 6,4 million euros or 0,27 percent.
"It is clear from the percentage itself that it is not a significant change in the budget", believes Ivanović.
During the debate in the Assembly on the proposed rebalancing of this year's budget, he said that the budget is being changed for three reasons.
"The first is of a financial nature, that is, an increase in planned revenues. The second is of a social nature, and concerns the change of the minimum wage, and the third is of a fiscal nature, that is, the creation of assumptions for the repayment and refinancing of the debt", Ivanović said.
He stated that lower interest rates were achieved than the existing ones for debt repayment.
"This is how each of us would behave individually and every company that takes care of costs", said Ivanovic.
He reminded that the budget deficit remains in the zone below three percent, which is within the framework of the Maastricht criteria.
Ivanović, explaining the rebalancing in more detail by item, announced that the amount of over 150 million euros is aimed at what is popularly called the quality of life of the citizens of Montenegro.
"Public debt funds are not used to finance consumption, but investment in infrastructure, with the aim of increasing the quality of life of citizens," Ivanovic said.
The representative of the Democratic Front (DF), Nebojša Medojević, claims that with this kind of policy, the Government must borrow non-stop in order to pay basic positions in the budget and in order for public finances to function.
"That's the tactic of the president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Milo Đukanović - if you lack 100 million euros, get into debt, and when it's time to pay, take another 100 million," Medojević said.
He believes that it is impossible to keep public finances stable.
"It's like having a barrel full of water and suddenly it's been drilled in ten places. Who's drilling that barrel? The Đukanović brothers, in such a way that no matter how much you pour from above, they have their own channels below," Medojević said.
He also claims that the economy of Montenegro is an economy of money laundering.
The deputy of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Raško Konjević, asked Finance Minister Darko Radunović why he claims that citizens have a better standard when their salaries have not been increased.
"Also, we have a gray economy which, according to government documents, is between 20 and 30 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Another gray economy is that we have 12 thousand companies with one employee each, which is impossible. This means a huge denial of contributions," Konjević said.
Also, as he added, the gray economy is also the fact that half of the 310 hotels have one employee, who is also the director, maid and cook.
"We have a state that does not pay taxes, which is also a gray economy. Who will pay the employees of Montenegro Airlines (MA) contributions? Those people will have to retire and who allows them not to be paid their contributions", Konjević asked.
He said that the state allows it even though it is the owner of that company.
"We have caught those who are doing business 'by the neck', with a workload of 67 percent or 64 percent, which is among the highest in the region, and we think that this is our fashion," Konjević said.
Independent member of parliament, Aleksandar Damjanović, asked if we should talk about replacing theses or perfidiously telling citizens that Montenegro is a low-indebted country, because some EU countries are much more indebted, and their salaries are three, four thousand euros.
"What is important is that they provide us with data on how much debt is planned with all interest rates so that we know what we are talking about," said Damjanović.
He said that the DPS submitted amendments with a new 4,3 million euro annex for fiscalization for the Tax Administration, and when it was recently discussed in the Assembly, it was said that it had already been provided.
"We and the citizens are a bit confused, why don't we speak precisely? "Why do we sometimes intentionally or unintentionally miss 4,3 million euros, why didn't the government submit that amendment, so that we can then discuss that it was a mistake," asked Damjanović.
According to him, this farce from the parliament does not deal with the report of the State Audit Institution (DRI) on the management of state property, which is catastrophic.
"The state does not know that it has its own apartments for which it pays maintenance and does not know who uses and maintains them," added Damjanović.
He assessed that everything is slowly becoming farcical.
"Thank you to all of us for how this parliament looks, but I will continue to use it as a perfect media platform, that is, an ordinary portal skupstina.me to give messages that would probably be censored somewhere else," said Damjanović.
The MP of the Bosniak Party (BS), Ervin Ibrahimović, announced that the Government is trying to reduce potential risks to public finances in the coming period by rebalancing, and he is justified.
"The budget for this year is the product of careful planning, but during the year there may be factors that we could not foresee and as such they may cause a rebalancing of the budget," said Ibrahimović.
According to him, the increase in the minimum wage, the reduction of taxes on contributions, the improvement of health care and the increase of unemployment benefits are the reasons for the rebalancing, which are the result of continuous changes in the Government's work in the coming period.
"When it comes to debt of 500 million euros, I think it is a good move by the Government to take advantage of the favorable announcements of the drop in interest rates on the international financial market," said Ibrahimović.
Social Democrats (SD) MP, Boris Mugoša, said that he had lowered the budget deficit in previous years so that it would be projected to 2,97 percent this year.
"It's a good, but insufficient indicator, because we have to aim for a surplus in public finances," Mugoša said.
He also said that the public debt will be below 2022 percent in 60.
"The amount of public debt is a challenge, because we are a small economy. What is important is that there is no more borrowing for current consumption. Every new borrowing is for debt refinancing and development projects," said Mugoša.
MP Miodrag Lekić said that in 2006, Montenegro was in debt with 700 million euros, and today the debt is 3,1 billion euros.
"The government says that the moment is favorable on the market and that interest rates are favorable. Is this reliable data? Do Canada and the Czech Republic know about this or is it just us? So let's brand this invention of ours and suggest to everyone to follow us and get into debt", said Lekić.
He claims that it is an unsustainable economy, and now, on the other hand, there is an unbearable ease of borrowing.
The MP of DPS, Branko Čavor, said that this is not a new debt, but a refinancing of the existing debt on favorable terms.
"That's 120 million euros over ten years, significantly lower costs," Čavor added.
He said that these changes in the law have a neutral fiscal effect.
"The deficit is at a level below three percent, which is good, and in the medium term, we plan to enter a surplus by 2021, with the tendency of the public debt to fall. I calculate that by 2022 it should drop below 60 percent," said Čavor.
In his introductory speech, Radunović said that one of the reasons for the proposed amendments to the Budget Law for this year is the need to create legal preconditions for refinancing the existing debt and creating a fiscal reserve.
"In order to create preconditions for debt refinancing and the creation of fiscal reserves, which will be collected next year, the possibility of issuing government bonds or implementing a credit arrangement in the second half of the year up to 500 million euros on the domestic or foreign market is being considered as a result of favorable developments on the international financial market", said Radunović.
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