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Habanik: Downsizing Number of Ministries Unrealistic Prior to Elections
Monday 11 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 11 (TASR) - LS-HZDS (Peoples Party-Movement For a Democratic Slovakia) can imagine supporting the proposal to lower the excise tax on fuels, a leading member of the Coalition party told TASR on Monday in Bratislava.
"And we can imagine this taking place also via reducing expenses at individual ministries; but it's an issue to be tackled only after the (Parliamentary) election," according to LS-HZDS Vice-chair Jozef Habanik.
Habanik thinks that downsizing the number of ministries before the end of this term is unrealistic, as the budgets have been already set. He expects the Coalition partners to meet before the Government's extraordinary session, set for January 15.
"Having such a meeting would be most useful, so all the issues at hand could be discussed. We're ready whenever our Coalition partners are," said Habanik. He didn't even rule out the possibility of such a meeting being convened by LS-HZDS. "The situation needs to be addressed and lowering the excise tax on fuels could present a way to go."
Premier Robert Fico on Monday informed journalists that the excise tax on fuels should decrease by 9 cents per litre by the end of January following his meeting with carriers, representatives of employers, unions, gas utility Slovnaft, and the finance and transportation ministries.
Implementing such a step, according to Fico, will cost the state €100 million. A portion of this drop in revenues is planned to be covered by downsizing the number of ministries from 16 to 14, with the rest saved by the Government's planned reduction of its operational expenses. As a result, the proposed change should not impact the planned deficit of public finances, he said.
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