Finance Minister Ivan Suker explained at a government session on Thursday that the state bonds would be used to cover the external debts and debts incurred on the domestic market totalling 850 million kuna and for farm subsidies.
The Ivo Sanader cabinet also gave guarantees enabling the port authorities in the southern Adriatic town of Ploce to conclude an agreement with the World Bank to finance a project for the integration of trade and transport.
The total costs of the integration process are estimated at 91 million euros. The project is to be funded by loans from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (11.2 million euros) and by state budgetary funds (21 million euros).
The government also discussed a scheme for compensation to be given to beneficiaries of the highest pensions and of family pensions, in accordance with a 12 May 1998 ruling of the Constitutional Court.
There are about 44,000 beneficiaries of the said categories of pensions and the government believes that it is necessary to ensure 1.4 billion kuna through the Pensioners' Fund for this purpose.
This proposal was sent into urgent parliamentary procedure so that the first installment of the compensation can be paid out this June for those who opt for the payment in an accelerated model, which means receiving half of the debt in four installments.
The government's scheme has covered 426,309 pensions so far under the law on the compensation of the debt incurred through the payment of lower pensions than those regulated by law.
The average amount of the compensation per pension beneficiary has been 26,000 kuna.