The Czech cabinet yesterday approved a draft state budget for next year with a deficit of CZK 241 billion. The deficit is CZK 11 billion higher than the Finance Ministry’s original proposal; CZK 10 billion of this will go to flood damage repairs, while CZK 1 billion will be added to the universities budget, said Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura (ODS).
This year, the budget deficit is projected at CZK 282 billion. The government yesterday also approved a CZK 30 billion increase in this year’s deficit because of the floods.
Budget revenues for 2025 are forecast at CZK 2,086 billion, up 7.5% from this year, while spending of CZK 2,327 billion is planned, up 4.7% compared to this year’s amended budget.
Stanjura acknowledged that the budget proposal did not have unanimous support in the cabinet, which he said was understandable given the current government crisis.
On Tuesday, PM Petr Fiala (ODS) announced the dismissal of Pirate leader Ivan Bartos from the posts of Deputy PM and Regional Development Minister, and the Pirates subsequently announced their departure from the five-party coalition government.
Stanjura stressed, however, that no-one had voted against the draft budget at the cabinet meeting yesterday.
Unlike in the Finance Ministry’s proposal from the end of August, the government distributed roughly CZK 10 billion in the approved budget bill from the general treasury to the various chapters for a planned 5% increase in public sector salaries, Stanjura said.
The minister stressed that compared to this year, the draft budget for next year foresees a 35.9% increase in capital expenditure, to CZK 250.8 billion, which he called a record level of investment activity.
The expenditure of the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry is also growing in view of the approved indexation of pensions. The state will also honour its legal commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence, Stanjura said.
The government has to submit the 2025 budget bill to the lower house by the end of September, and the house is expected to start discussing it in October. The final vote on the budget is usually scheduled for December, after which the bill is submitted to the president for signing.
Jakub Michalek, chair of the Pirates’ four-member parliamentary group, told CTK that the Pirates would not support the budget bill and would proceed in the same way as their chairman, Ivan Bartos, did at the cabinet meeting today.
Michalek said Bartos did so because of dissatisfaction with the budget planned for the Pirate-headed Foreign Ministry, which will receive roughly CZK 80 million less next year.
Michalek said on Tuesday that after the Pirates’ withdrawal from the government, the four Pirate MPs intend to continue their mandates and continue to promote what they promised their voters.
