2023-11-23 19:15:11
Expenditures of €123.49 billion are offset by income of €102.63 billion
Vienna (PK) – Parliamentary discussions on the 2024 budget have been completed. After a total of ten days of negotiations, the agreement was reached National Council this evening for the one presented by the government Budget draft and the new one Federal financial framework. No changes were made. The resolutions were made with the votes of the ÖVP and the Greens; only the budgets of the Ombudsman’s Office, the Court of Auditors and the Supreme Court received unanimous approval in the second reading. In addition to the coalition parties, the SPÖ and NEOS also approved the budget for the presidential office.
Specifically, the Federal Finance Act 2024 provides for revenues of €102.63 billion and expenses of €123.49 billion. In total, this results in an administrative deficit of around €20.9 billion or 4.13% of GDP. Calculated according to the Maastricht criteria, a loss of 3% or – if states, municipalities and social security systems are taken into account – 2.7% is expected. The prerequisite for this is that the economy grows by 1.2%, as forecast. The general government debt ratio is expected to remain stable at 76.4% of GDP in 2024 despite rising interest payments and is expected to decline to 76.1% by 2027 according to the federal financial framework.
The fact that the budget deficit is higher than in the 2023 federal estimate (-€17.1 billion) is due, among other things, to the new financial equalization and accompanying agreements that provide the states and municipalities with additional funds for health, care, housing, childcare and other areas. The government has also budgeted more money for other budget items such as national defense, climate protection, science and research and internal security. In addition, the somewhat less favorable economic conditions, rising pension expenses, reduced income due to the abolition of cold progression, the valorization of family benefits as well as energy aid and other measures to make the business location more attractive are also reflected. The number of permanent positions at the federal government is expected to increase – by 1,159 to 145,149 – with the largest increases occurring in the areas of education, justice, internal affairs and financial administration.
While the ÖVP and the Greens praised the current budget in the debate as “future-oriented” and “solid”, the opposition did not give a damn regarding the government’s budget policy. Austria has prices that are too high, taxes that are too high and debts that are too high, said SPÖ finance spokesman Kai Jan, summing up his party’s criticism at the beginning of the plenary week. The SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS also consider it worrying that the budget deficit – according to the federal financial framework – will remain at a high level in the next few years. FPÖ budget spokesman Hubert Fuchs, for example, spoke of a “budgetary shambles”. NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger complained that young people were being given “a backpack worth billions” but that the climate goals were still being “grossly missed”.
Finance Minister Magnus Brunner claimed that Austria is one of the few EU countries that will comply with the Maastricht deficit limit in 2024 – despite a weak economy, higher interest rates and relief measures. He also emphasized the strengthening of purchasing power through the abolition of cold progression and other measures.
No majority for opposition motions for resolutions
The National Council also voted on a total of 45 motions for resolutions from the opposition, with the individual factions’ demands ranging from the provision of €500 million for peace work to the reintroduction of eight-month basic military service to the reform of federal sports funding. They remained in the minority, although in many cases a continuation of the parliamentary debate can be expected.
SPÖ calls for a higher education budget and a free museum evening
The SPÖ had, among other things, measures to secure the pension system including a clear commitment to maintaining the current statutory retirement age, an increase in unemployment benefits, an increase in staff at the AMS and the labor inspection, and the valorization of funds for important state institutions such as Statistics Austria and AGES , called for the provision of €500 million for sustainable peace work and a package of measures to eliminate child poverty. Also more tax justice at European and international level, a weekly free museum evening in the federal museums, the issuance of a cultural voucher worth €200 upon reaching the age of 18, collective agreement apprenticeship compensation for apprentices in inter-company training workshops, specific criteria for funding from the forest fund , more support for rescue and civil protection organizations and an annual report on the activities of the Austrian Fund for the Strengthening and Promotion of Women and Girls (“LEA”) are important to the Social Democrats.
In the health sector, the SPÖ wants to strengthen the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) and increase the accident insurance contribution back to 1.4 percent. A higher education budget should, among other things, enable an expansion of the interconnected all-day school, better individual support for students, inclusion, the provision of a daily hot lunch, social indexation of resource allocations to schools, additional support staff and a separate workplace for teachers. In order to improve the financial situation of cities and municipalities, the SPÖ demanded a reversal of the corporate tax cut and more money for the municipalities.
FPÖ insists on lifting the Russia sanctions and ending the CO2 tax
The FPÖ has submitted 28 motions for resolutions, although many of the demands have a long history. For example, the Freedom Party is insisting on measures to combat inflation, including a massive tax cut on fuel and a price cap for basic foodstuffs, the abolition of the ORF household tax, the lifting of all sanctions once morest Russia, the abolition of the CO2 tax and compensation payments to people who violate the law Corona regulations or unconstitutional Corona laws have suffered psychological, physical or financial damage. They are also pushing for recognized refugees to only be granted benefits in kind as part of basic services instead of minimum income, to restrict access to the labor market for EU citizens as well, and to cut unemployment benefits and emergency assistance for long-term unemployed foreigners. Furthermore, the government should present an annual “transparency report” with a list of the costs of illegal immigration, reject the EU’s asylum and migration package and conclude international treaties in order to force foreign criminals to serve their sentences in their home country.
To avoid “wasting taxpayers’ money,” the FPÖ is pushing for a comprehensive reform of development aid. Accordingly, the provision of aid should depend on the economic situation in Austria and be linked to conditions such as the fight once morest corruption, democratic progress or readmission agreements for unrecognized refugees. All humanitarian aid to Afghanistan should also be stopped.
In addition, the FPÖ is proposing a whole package of health policy measures, ranging from the integration of elective doctors into the health insurance system to a revision of the job profiles of health workers to a lifting of the 70-year age limit for statutory health insurance physicians. At the same time, inmates of prisons should be included in statutory health insurance.
Further demands include the reintroduction of 8 months of basic military service and the making of the soldier’s profession more attractive, a rapid reform of child support law, the promotion of public infrastructure and housing projects to stimulate the construction industry, the expansion of daily exercise in school, the increase in federal funding for local music clubs, Choirs and music bands, the increase in the basic salary for law enforcement officers, the granting of energy cost subsidies to small tourist landlords, free preparation courses for master’s and qualification examinations, the expansion of
HTL places in the areas of IT and computer science, the planning of a “Tunnel Lueg” in the Tyrolean Wipptal, more funds for the implementation of the Austrian youth strategy, improvements to daddy month and a significant increase in Austria’s contribution to the European Space Agency. However, funding for the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) and additional payments from the Minister of Education to the Austrian Student Union are expressly rejected.
NEOS provides an overview of digitization projects
The NEOS is concerned with reforming federal sports funding, particularly as it relates to the responsible decision-making bodies. They also called for a transparent and systematic presentation of digitization projects, including their costs, in the form of a budget supplement.
The last budget was for the head of the parliamentary budget service, Helmut Berger, who is retiring at the end of November and received a standing ovation from MPs for his 11.5 years of service. Berger led the budget service with great care and a non-partisan approach and made it an indispensable part of parliamentary work, emphasized the second President of the National Council, Doris Bures.
Already on Tuesday, the National Council passed a comprehensive budget accompanying law and other bills related to the budget. This included, among other things, the financing of 100 new medical insurance offices, a significant increase in subsidies for climate-friendly heating, an expansion of tax incentives for overtime, compensation payments for criminally prosecuted homosexuals and pension interventions for OeNB employees. The annual limit for payroll tax liability rises to €13,981, and chip production can be funded with up to €2.8 billion in the next few years.
Before the final votes, the National Council discussed the finance chapter of the budget. (Continuation of the National Council) gs
NOTES: Meetings of the National Council and the Federal Council can also be followed via live stream and are available as video-on-demand in the Parliament’s media library available.
The Parliamentary Budget Service offers economic analyzes of budget policy and templates from the Federal Ministry of Finance.
This provides details on the 2024 budget, the changes to previous years and the development of ongoing budget implementation interactive visualization tool of the budget service. There you will receive a quick and transparent overview of relevant budget data.
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