Filenews 8 November 2021
The House Standing Committee on Finance discussed on Monday the fifth supplementary budget for 2021, amounting to €180.6 million.
As noted by the Ministry of Finance, the burden on the fiscal balance amounts to 0.11% and clarifies that the amount of € 156.2 million is not enough. It relates to intra-governmental transactions and therefore does not affect a fiscal balance.
It is noted that the total amount of the five supplementary budgets this year amounts to €690.8 million.
Among other things, in the new supplementary budget, additional appropriations of €85 million are included. to cover the increased expenditure required for the payment of the increased general government contribution to the GHS by the end of the year, as well as additional appropriations of €8.5 million to meet the increased needs for the purchase of medicines and vaccines.
There was also a need for additional appropriations of €30 million to finance the National Solidarity Fund due to incorrect accounting in 2019. The amount of €13.8 million is also foreseen, due to the coverage of the tax debts of the Cyprus Popular Bank Public Company, until 30/12/2021.
The supplementary budget also includes appropriations of €3.7 million due to the increased migratory flows and the increased applications for asylum and international protection received by the Social Welfare Services. In particular, these credits are expected to cover the cost of material reception conditions and their stay in hotels and other accommodation, as reported.
The supplementary budget also includes increased appropriations to cover needs that arose, small infrastructure projects, increased sponsorships to the CSO, the University of Cyprus, the Rialto Theatre.
€165.8 million is also foreseen, intended to cover the maintenance and operation costs of the National Guard.
It also includes €415,800 in appropriations due to the increase in the number of greenhouse gas emission allowances available to the Republic of Cyprus, resulting in an increase in the auction costs of allowances paid to the CSE as auctioneer.
It also includes increased expenses for the payment of Transitional National Aid to sheep and goat farming, as a counterbalance to the increased cost of animal feed, amounting to €1.4 million. Also, due to the fact that the payment of subsidies by KOAP for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) Measures will take place later than initially estimated, the relevant amounts cannot be disbursed and reused within the year and additional appropriations of €7.7 million are required for liquidity reasons, so that KOAP can continue its payments to beneficiaries unhindered until the end of 2021, concerning measures of the RDPS and Direct Payment Measures, which are co-financed by the EU.
In addition, amounts are included to cover the accruals of the contractors of the Larnaca-Famagusta OEDA (€750,000) and the Limassol OEDA (€600,000).
Expenses €19.4 million which were intended to cover, among others, the General Government Contribution to the Social Insurance Fund for 2021 and €3.8 million. expenditure on social pension provision.
€7.5 million in order to pay off the cost of the project of replacing the existing energy-intensive street lighting luminaires in the communities with LED-type luminaires.
Article 16 is also amended to diversify the employment ceiling for teaching staff, to cover the increased needs of the school year 2021-2022. The implementation of the above arrangement entails an additional cost of €1.8 million for the two months of the school year 2021-2022 (November – December). The word "employees" is also replaced in the first reservation of Article 16 (first line) with the words "employees of indefinite duration and/or fixed-term employees".
At the same time, the Judicial Service is included in the exceptions included in the first reservation of Article 16 in order to provide the option of replacing serving employees of indefinite duration and / or fixed-term employees in the Judicial Service in case of their departure.
At the same time, the need to create limited jobs for the proper functioning of the state machinery is met. These are nineteen posts, i.e. twelve in the external services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the transfer of officials of the Cereals Committee to the Ministry of Agriculture (six posts) and to the Department of Public Administration and Personnel (one post) for the purpose of implementing the law that provided for the transfer of officials of the Grains Commission to the Ministry of Agriculture.
