2016 budget: slippage announced should not be recouped by the social security system

2016 budget: slippage announced should not be recouped by the social security system

The deficit of two billion euros which the federal government needs to fill for the Spring adjustment of the 2016 Budget falls within the "chronology of the overall budgetary slippage", of which the citizen will be the the victim through the pursuit of new welfare reductions, stated Ecolo on Friday. The initial budget "was not acceptable", owing, in particular, to an over-estimate of receipts, "and this has been resolved as it will still be necessary to finance the tax shift", the deputy Georges Gilkinet stressed.
 
In his view, the Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt (N-VA - New Flemish Alliance) has not done a good job regarding the efficient collection of taxes, with no means for the government to create jobs and capital growth. Gilkinet said “This failure, which confirms the indicators published by Ecolo and Groen last week, revolves around a point on which the government is, however, focused upon: the path for returning to budgetary equilibrium.”

In Van Overtveldt's ministerial department, the finger is being squarely pointed to the secondary effects of low interest rates upon fiscal receipts. However the opposition deputy is somewhat conscious of the economic slowdown, which is due, he says, to the lack of an economic project to attract support. He states, “The wishful thinking of the tax shift is not, on its own,  sufficient.”

Georges Gilkinet is calling upon the government not to make citizens the victims of budgetary adjustment, by managing cut backs in the social security budget. "This will only have the effect of impoverishing the most vulnerable and the middle classes, without allowing any revenue increase."

(Source: Belga)


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