“When this issue was discussed in the Council of State Defense, I can probably say that I very clearly told all the members of the council that in the coming years, due to the really strained public finances, there will definitely not be any very large additional opportunities, we will keep the percentage of funding as it is and agreed, – I.Šimonytė told BNS on Tuesday.
In this way, she reacted to the previous statement of the presidential advisor Kęstutis Budris that the Government does not follow the plans agreed upon earlier this year by the leaders of the country regarding the expansion of the Lithuanian army and he is surprised by the reluctance to foresee the possibility of borrowing for the needs of national defense in next year’s state budget draft.
“I am saddened to hear such accusations from the adviser, because there was no agreement on some specific amounts in 2024 and specific percentages, but it was a very clear message from me to all the members of the State Defense Council that the budget for the coming year will be very tight as it is,” he said. prime minister
Currently, the Government proposes to allocate 2.71 percent to defense. Gross domestic product (GDP), of which 2.52 percent GDP is budget funds, the rest is the money of temporary bank solidarity contribution.
President Gitanas Nausėda, for his part, proposes to envisage the possibility for the state to borrow so much that defense financing reaches 3% next year. GDP.
I.Šimonytė stated that this proposal is “even arithmetically unfeasible”, because the financial deficit already currently reaches 2.9%. GDP, therefore, after borrowing so much, “we will fly far beyond the Maastricht criterion”, which stipulates 3 percent. deficit limit.
In addition, she said that she had not heard from K. Budris what other obligations he proposes to waive, at that time the Government was already receiving criticism from his colleagues regarding other expenditure lines.
“In the coming years, in the context of a really slow-growing economy, we have a lot of commitments to fulfill, including the commitments on the national agreement on education, which we also have a lot of comments from advisers to the president, other advisers to the president are making a lot of comments about roads, I have it’s a bit of a problem to please all the advisers of the president”, said I.Šimonytė.
According to her, after the presidential elections in 2024, it would make sense to start a discussion on how to sustainably finance a larger defense budget in the future without borrowing, as it will become an additional financial burden when interest rates rise.
At that time, the Ministry of National Defense, in response to K. Budris’s comment to BNS, said that defense financing has received a lot of attention in recent years and has doubled compared to the 2020s.
According to the ministry, due to additional, 2.52 percent. Allocations exceeding the level of GDP financing are negotiated separately in the Government every year, and the practical proof of this is both the allocations provided for national defense in this year’s state budget and the draft state budget for 2024 prepared by the Government, when additional allocations for defense financing from 2.52 percent are allocated according to the Law on Temporary Solidarity Contribution . GDP level increased to 2.76 percent this year. GDP, and next year it will increase to 2.71 percent. GDP.
The Ministry also points out that the final decisions regarding the acquisition of the tanks needed by the National Division have not yet been made.
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2024-09-20 11:09:18
