“There are a number of variables and it is possible that the budget reserve, which is now about 35 billion, may be swallowed up by a deeper drop in revenues,” the minister said.
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However, she added that she hoped that this would not happen and that she would be able to keep her words that she would not go to the Chamber of Deputies with another demand for a deepening of the deficit.
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Already this year, Schiller has asked the Chamber of Deputies to increase the deficit for the third time. In connection with the coronavirus epidemic, the originally planned deficit of CZK 40 billion first increased to CZK 200 billion and then to CZK 300 billion. That was not enough either, so the Minister submitted a proposal for 500 billion crowns to the deputies, to which the Chamber of Deputies nodded YES, CSSD and KSCM deputies on Wednesday, the other parties were against.
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During a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies on support for the amendment to the state budget, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (YES) said on Wednesday that he “believes that the government will not have to ask for more money by the end of the year.”
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The opposition did not criticize the level of the deficit as such as rather the ambiguity about what exactly the money should go to. Opposition deputies also came up with proposals to transfer money within the budget, but failed.
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The House only approved Babiš’s amendment, which reduced the budget reserve by about one hundred billion to the above-mentioned 35 billion. And the Communists also came to their senses, proposing the transfer of 2.3 billion crowns.
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