By Andreas Kißler
BERLIN (Dow Jones) – The Bundestag has approved the new budget of Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), which provides for a second supplementary budget of 60.4 billion euros in new debts to finance measures due to the Corona crisis. The Union and SPD voted for the draft law, while the left, FDP and AfD voted against it, as Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth announced. The Greens abstained according to their statements. In total, the federal government wants to take out 240.2 billion euros in new loans this year. However, the Bundestag must again approve the debt limit to be exceeded due to an emergency.
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) had fed the expectation of an economic upswing after the corona pandemic shortly before the vote. “It’s about moving forward, getting out of the pandemic,” he said. “After the pandemic, we want to take off,” he emphasized. “And we will be able to start again economically.”
The supplementary budget foresees total expenditure of 547.7 billion euros for 2021, which is almost 50 billion euros more than originally estimated. With the intended New debt According to the Bundestag, the upper limit of the debt rule would be exceeded by around 213 billion euros.
Repayment planned from 2026
Of the additional funds, 25.5 billion euros have been earmarked for business aid. Additional funds are to be used to offset additional expenses at the Ministry of Health that have been made since the beginning of the year. In addition, tax revenues of 9 billion euros are to be offset. According to the government’s plans in the federal budget for 2026 and in the following 16 budget years, the loans are to be repaid.
However, there was a lot of criticism from parts of the opposition in the debate. “This orgy of debt is irresponsible,” said AfD politician Volker Münz. It is happening at the expense of the coming generation. FDP parliamentary group vice Christian Dürr said the money would be “put in the shop window to sweeten the work of the SPD’s candidate for chancellor”. Left-wing politician Gesine Lötzsch complained that the supplementary budget still does not state who should pay the bill.
According to his budget cornerstones, Scholz is also planning a further net borrowing of 81.5 billion euros for 2022. The government then wants to use the exception from the debt brake again. In 2023, however, this should no longer be necessary. Then the federal reserve originally invested for refugee costs with 32.2 billion euros in 2023 and 16.0 billion in 2024 will be used up in the financial plan. In addition, from 2024 a funding gap of 4.9 billion euros in the year and 15.2 billion euros in 2025 is listed. New debt is expected to be 8.3 billion euros in 2023, 11.5 billion in 2024 and 10.0 billion euros in 2025.
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DJG / ank / cbr
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2021 04:26 ET (08:26 GMT)
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