Fiscal Council: 2011 budget built on laws not finalised yet

The 2011 budget draft is built around various intentions and wishes of the Government instead of laws endorsed by the Parliament or at least by the Cabinet, the Fiscal Council notes after having reviewed the documents.

The building of next year’s budget as delayed as it already is, is undermined by the taking into account of spending and revenue estimates, which are not based on an already enacted legal framework, as long as the laws on which the new salary policy of the Government, the pension law, the regulation on maternity allowance or the reference for the unemployment benefits are built, have not been finalised and endorsed so far, the Fiscal Council says, which got the documents from the Finance Ministry as late as November 30.
The institution put in charge by the fiscal responsibility law to review and make recommendations about the budgetary legislation, notes that not even the fiscal-budget legislation enacted by the Government in September, which should have been used as the basis for devising the budget has not been approved by the Parliament yet, as neither has the law on budget caps.