Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grčić practically admitted today in Rijeka at the EU Funds Day that the state budget for 2013 is short five billion kuna, and that is the reason why the budget proposal will not be presented to the Government and Parliament this week.
– The amount of the budget for 2013 will be announced next week at the Government. However, we are indeed facing very large demands: just based on the increase in interest rates on existing loans, then because we have to pay 1.7 billion kuna for EU membership, and due to costs in shipbuilding, the expenditure side of the budget will increase by five billion kuna in 2013. That needs to be found somewhere – said Grčić, as reported by Novi list. When asked where cuts will first have to be made because of this, Grčić replied that ‘if there are cuts, they will be known next week’.
Speaking about the future of 3. maj, Grčić responded that everything is proceeding according to the Government’s decisions and known procedures, and he did not want to talk about the possible failure of the plan with Uljanik entering 3. maj.
