Civici’s Argument: MP Angjeli explains why 2017 budget is undergoing a change

Socialist Party MP and former Finance Minister Anastas Angjeli in an interview with SCAN’s Argument explained the reasons for a budget review that is expected to be approved at next week’s parliamentary session.

According to Angjeli, the budget will be revised for the purpose of securing energy reserves, which was published in the normative act during the summer season.

The second reason is related to the failure as a result of the electoral year in realizing some projects and the reallocation of budget funds in favor of projects with a high efficiency level in implementation.

The third one is that it is expected an addition to fund of the Prime Minister’s Office treating unforeseen cases.

“We are nearing the end of the year, and because of the features, I’m not saying because of the features of a semi-technical government or due to an election period, but especially because of some necessary needs that are also constitutional requirements, which stipulate that the budget can change through a normative act that is a necessity and an emergency. So, these reasons are requiring us to make changes and adjustments, starting from some causes and some reasons to achieve some of the main objectives.”

“The first cause is the great drought and energy needs. This has to be considered as a very serious and social issue to meet the needs of the population, but also for the economy of the country as well. Based on the state of energy reserves in the country, especially the issue of electricity supply, the government gave the power to major energy companies to deal with this issue and there would be a reallocation of funds at about ALL 3 billion in the state budget.”

“Because of the above mentioned factors – a year of technical changes to the government and election campaigns – we have a budget use, perhaps not very effective in some projects, and the funds should be reallocated to those projects that have the greatest efficiency. That is why, for this purpose and for meeting some other needs in some items of budget expenditures, there will be a reallocation of these items in the budget as well. The Council of Ministers reserve fund has a supplement to face unforeseen problems that may emerge.”

Asked about the main macroeconomic indicators and the impact of reviewing them, Angjeli stressed that the budget deficit, the level of public debt and the revenue forecast remains unchanged.

Angela also emphasized that changing the name and functions of the new government ministries “Rama2”will be applied no earlier than the 2018 budget.

SCAN

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