PARLIAMENT PARTY BENCHES COMMENT ON DRAFT BUDGET FOR NEXT YEAR

ZAGREB, Dec 6 (Hina) - parliament party benches in the ruling coalition, Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), as well as party benches Primorje-Gorski Kotar Party - Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party (PGS-SBHS) and representatives of national minorities on Wednesday endorsed the Government's draft budget for the year 2001. The draft was dismissed by the Democratic Centre (DC) party bench, while the bench Croatian Party of Rights-Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HSP-HKDU) did not voice its opting. Although the HSLS deems the draft too high due to the high participation of the Gross Domestic Product and high budgetary deficit, the party assessed as positive the drafting of the fiscal policy for the next three years and the envisaged participation of capital turnover in the budget for the period. Djuro Njavro (DC) held it as negative that the budget envisaged a ten per cent nominal decrease in salaries from the budget. He warned that there were 200,000 people who receive their incomes from the budget in Croatia, including teachers, health workers, the military and police. He held that the decision on the decrease in salaries had been made in haste, and could lead to various means of conflicts by unions of those stricken by the decision. He also criticised the high budgetary deficit which, according to him, could be diminished by decreasing current expenditures or increasing the Value Added Tax. The DC bench also holds negative the fact that the budget was relying on capital income, as, it said, in the next several years, due to losses, the value of some companies to undergo the privatisation process will fall. Damir Kajin of the IDS said the restriction of the government budget was necessary due to the impossibility of the realisation of greater incomes from what had been planned in the draft. He stressed a decrease in income taxes would jeopardise the financing of local self-governments. Kajin applauded the fact the draft budget envisaged harmonising pensions with salaries, but asserted a reform of the pension fund was necessary to do so, the deficit of which the budget will no longer be able to bare. He assessed that the budget would soon become revised due to the reform of the local self-government. Mato Arlovic of the SDP said it was still possible to consider reallocations, but there could be no word of the budget's "overflow". He stressed the draft envisaged a distancing of the state as a market subject, and there was no room for criticism such as that the budget was not supporting entrepreneurs. Arlovic recalled the tax policy which will stimulate investments, stressing that an intervention of the state never ceased, but would diminish in line with the draft budget to the least possible measure. The HSP-HKDU party bench holds the draft was not the objective will of the Croatian Government, but had been drawn up under pressure by the International Monetary Fund. The Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives continued with individual discussions, with 73 MPs registered. (hina) lml jn