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Commentaries on the State Budget 2000

  • Olev Raju

    University of Tartu, Chair of Economic Theory, professor

  • Villu Reiljan

    MP Member of the Riigikogu Foreign Affairs Committee, Estonian People’s Union

Commentaries on the State Budget 2000.

Olev Raju

MP Member of the Riigikogu Finance Committee, Estonian Centre Party

During the proceeding of the state budget one of the strongest critics of the ruling coalition was Olev Raju (member of the finance committee), chairman of the finance committee in the VIII Riigikogu. According to the official transcript of the Riigikogu proceedings, he claims that in the state budget drawn up by the ruling coalition there are mistakes of elementary arithmetic. He sees the biggest problems in the proportions of the budget of central government and local governments, and says that the calculations of the tax revenue that the local governments are expected to receive are questionable. Mr Raju also refers to the negotiations in the finance committee with the association of local governments the results of which were not taken into account.

Villu Reiljan

MP Member of the Riigikogu Foreign Affairs Committee, Estonian People’s Union

Minister of Environment in the former Government, Villu Reiljan points out the example published in the Estonian media saying that the ruling coalition has also used the selling of state assets to cover the gap in the state budget created as a result of the income tax reductions. As a representative of the Estonian People’s Union, he is against the draft law of this year’s state budget because the draft law is in conflict with several laws. For example, the Fuel Excise Tax Act, as fuel excise is not compensated to agricultural producers, as well as Drafting of the State Budget Act and local governments charter ratified by Estonia. This puts an additional tax burden on some of the Estonian population and at the same time brings benefits only to a few, increasing social tensions and regional disparities.

Full article in Estonian

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