The Ministry of Finance of Albania, Shkëlqim Cani, announced on Wednesday that the Normative Act has not changed the total of 2015 deficit maintaining the same level approved early this year in agreement with IMF.
In a press release, the MoF explains that the main goal of Normative Act is to accommodate the projected difference in the state budget revenues at a minimum cost to the budget of state institutions. It also involves accommodation of changes in the local budget with the new administrative- territorial reform coming in effect.
According to MoF, state budget revenues are estimated at around ALL 16.3 bn less that projection for earlier this year. General budget expenditures until the end of 2015 are projected at ALL 456.4 bn, that is 3.92 % less than preliminary plan foreseen in 2015 law.
Although budget expenditures have been proposed at reduced levels, what really matters is the fact that the real budget of institutions has been kept intact. There was intervention in the voices which had accumulated savings or where expenditures , as forecast, would result in failure to fulfill the goals at the end of the year.
It is worth mentioning that expenditures in priority sectors such as education, health care and agriculture have not been cut. On the contrary, there is a significant increase (education +ALL 1.3 bn, health care + ALL 340 mln (including the raise in the level of contributions) , agriculture + ALL 98 mln), according to MoF.