The last two transactions from this year’s state budget – the payment of just over 10 million kuna to the Fund for the Reconstruction and Development of Vukovar and one million kuna for the oncology department of the Children’s Hospital in Klaićeva, were carried out today at the Ministry of Finance by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.
"At the end of this year, which has been extremely difficult, certainly the hardest since the war years, I am proud that we have managed to achieve our projects and plans," said Kosor, concluding the budget year 2009. According to data presented by Finance Minister Ivan Šuker, state budget revenues this year will be realized between 99.0 and 99.5 percent of the planned, while expenditures will be around 99.7 percent of the planned.
"This best shows that the third budget revision was very well planned, anticipated what would happen, and the introduction of new levies has led to the fact that today we have stable public finances," said Šuker. "With these three revisions, we managed to achieve what we wanted, stabilize finances," said Prime Minister Kosor, reminding that through three revisions an additional saving of 6.5 billion, or almost seven billion kuna, was achieved.
She emphasized that all projects related to the protection of families and the most vulnerable groups were preserved, ensuring regular payment of pensions and salaries. She also reminded that the government made unpopular, difficult decisions, such as the introduction of a special tax and the increase of VAT rates.
"For the finance minister and me, these were truly the hardest decisions, and we bore the heaviest burden of those decisions. However, we are aware that this was a moment when we simply had to do it," said Kosor, who believes that, as stated in the Law on Special Tax, the end of 2010 will also be the end of that tax. She mentioned that even with the crisis tax, consideration was given to the most vulnerable groups.
