No cuts have been made on defence spending in the negative supplementary budget. However, along with other ministries, the Ministry of Defence must also review its personnel and management costs and redirect savings towards improving defence capabilities. In the area of administration of the Ministry of the Interior, savings will come from one-off costs of around 3 million euros.
This time, the austerity measures of the budget do not affect museums, theatres, and concert foundations.
Hospitals will have to contribute 1% savings on operating costs.
Investments in research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) will remain at the agreed level of 1% of the GDP. However, as the economy is doing worse than expected, the savings will be the amount that exceeds the spring forecast of 1 per cent of the GDP, i.e. the expenditure level will be reduced by 19 million euros.
The supplementary budget foresees 68 million euros in additional revenue, such as higher-than-planned dividend withdrawals from state-owned companies Elering AS and the State Forest Management Centre.
The government does not plan to cancel any major investments, but the fiscal position will be affected by the postponement of some investments, such as those related to IT solutions and the construction of buildings and facilities.
Additional savings will come from a reduction of 39 million euros in both the government’s unallocated and earmarked reserves, of which 10 million is the partial rescheduling of the development of the eastern border by the Ministry of the Interior and 6.6 million is a reduction in R&D&I expenditure; the remainder is savings in government reserves.
The draft supplementary budget is published on the website of the Ministry of Finance:https://www.fin.ee/riigi-rahandus-ja-maksud/riigieelarve-ja-eelarvestrateegia/riigieelarved#item-1
