"The 2005 budget is aimed at keeping the ruling majority in the parliament to the detriment of Croatia according to the model 'trade a little, buy a little, cheat a little'," said Milanka Opacic of the Social Democrats, adding that the budget "would hold water only until after local elections'."
The Opposition claims that the government is incapable of solving crucial national problems, that the budget is growing faster than GDP, that it lacks the necessary reforms and that it will result in the sale of national resources.
Until next year we will sell the Adriatic Pipe-Line (JANAF) and Croatian Power Industry (HEP) companies, Opacic warned.
Jozo Rados of Libra believes that one should cut budgetary expenses.
The Opposition is very suspicious about the government's announcements that the state budget will be filled better thanks to a more efficient tax collection and reduction of grey economy, and the re-introduction of the financial police.
The Opposition believes that concessions are bringing too little revenue. Tonci Tadic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) wanted to know where money from the third GSM network was and what was behind significantly increased spending for international military cooperation.
The government plans to increase funds for international military cooperation from this year's 20 million kuna to as many as 100 million in 2007. Is this about the deployment of Croatian soldiers to Iraq or some other risky missions, Tadic asked.
Ivan Cehok of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) accused the former government of excessive spending, saying that the coalition government spent millions of kuna on various agricultural plants and shipyards to no avail.
As in previous years, the Opposition accused the government of spending too much money for the purchase of vehicles for the parliament and the government, which is seven and a half times higher than before.
"After local elections in May, the budget will be revised as agreed with the IMF, and the electorate is expected to fall for promises like one on a reduction of Value Added Tax," said Zeljko Pecek of the
Peasant Party (HSS).
Supporting his claim that the budget is a pre-election budget, Pecek said that promotion funds for all ministries were increased by one hundred percent or more and totalled hundreds of millions of kuna, while the President's Office was allocated a mere 665,000 kuna for that purpose.
"The HDZ-led government is barely able to survive on what the coalition government left it," said Radimir Cacic of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), dismissing claims by the HDZ that government loans were considerably reduced this year. Cacic said that the state debt saw an increase in the first eight months.
The Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) will not vote for the budget either, because the budget does not envisage the implementation of the Constitutional Court's decision of 1998 on the payment of the state debt to pensioners, said Damir Kajin, accusing the government of ignoring Istria with regard to budgetary allocations "as if it were not part of Croatia".
Finance Minister Ivan Suker dismissed the accusations, stating that accusations about excessive and non-transparent spending and the granting of guarantees and loans without any criteria applied to the previous government.
Answering Pecek's accusations about the government unlawfully setting aside some five billion kuna of budgetary funds to grant them "according to party affiliation", Suker said that this was something the former government had done by granting loans to the Viktor Lenac shipyard.
Suker dismissed opposition claims that the HDZ wanted to set up the financial police again to collect excessive taxes from business people, especially those not supporting the HDZ. "I do not know who considered it appropriate not to have control over the collection of excise taxes for three years," he said.
Josip Sudec of the Croatian Pensioners Party (HSU) announced his party's support for the budget, but also advocated that another billion kuna be set aside to raise the average pension to amount to 50 percent of the average salary, planned for next year, as he said 1.2 billion for that purpose would not be enough.
Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) said that slightly more than 600 million kuna envisaged for the reconstruction of houses damaged in the war would not be enough to implement plans according to which most houses would be reconstructed in 2005.
Pupovac is also worried about the fact that budgetary funds for reconstruction are almost the same as those intended for the purchase of houses and provision of accommodation to temporary occupants, as well as about meagre funds intended for councils of national minorities.
The HDZ voiced unanimous support for the draft budget, which Sime Prtenjaca said would introduce order into state finances and encourage the private sector to help economic development together with the government.