CROATIAN LOWER HOUSE DISCUSSES STATE BUDGET EXECUTION

ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament House of Representatives on Wednesday discussed a report on execution of the state budget in the first half of this year. A Deputy Finance Minister, Mijo Jukic, informed MPs about the report. He said that revenue and expenditure were within planned proportions. In the first six months of 1997, the total revenue for the budget amounted to 17.8 billion kuna (2.8 billion U.S. dollars), or 44.9 percent of the yearly plan. Until September 1, about 70 percent of revenue planned to be received from taxes was achieved, he told the lower house and added that an amount of money received from special duties on petroleum products, tobacco products and privatisation was not as high as planned. He envisaged that until the end of the year the budget might be exceeded in items for development and reconstruction, for salaries and for transfer in the pension fund. During the discussion, deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ) said that two basic components of the budget - the development and social welfare - were fulfilled. Opposition parties criticised mostly the way how the budget was being executed. The Istrian Democratic Alliance (IDS) pointed to the bad collection of contributions from privatisation and asked how much money had been allocated from the budget to certain areas in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) was concerned at an increase in expenditure of the state administrative bodies, whereas Croatian Social Liberals (HSLS) were afraid that the realisation of the budget's social component might come in question due to a lack of collected incomes. (hina) jn mš 012338 MET oct 97