2024 budget gets green light – Inside scoop on state wage proposals

The 2024 budget was passed into law relatively comfortably, with a total of 37 MPs voting for it, while 19 were opposed. The budget was supported by members of DISY, DIKO, EDEK, DIPA, ELAM, and independent MP Andreas Themistokleous. However, it was voted down by the MPs of AKEL, the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens’ Cooperation, MP Kostis Efstathiou, and MP Alexandra Attalidou.

A total of 106 amendments were put to the vote, of which 39 were passed. Some of them indeed stood out, but the crucial point is that the state budget for the year 2024 is in surplus. DISY’s support for the 2024 budget was not surprising news, but it made its mark by highlighting what it perceives to be a black spot and repeatedly emphasizing the trend of increasing inelastic spending. In the speeches of the president of DISY, Fr. Annita Demetriou, on the first day of the budget debate and the next day with the speeches of his deputies, there were extensive reports about the inflation of the cost of the state machine.

DISY recorded its positions in this piece from the state budget report, stating that the Democratic Rally did not agree and considers mass hiring in the public sector wrong. In the first nine months of Christodoulides’ administration, the procedures for 2,400 new hires in the public and wider public sector have been promoted, a number that far exceeds the annual retirements and departures. “At the same time, we are drawing attention to various benefit increases. The cost of these decisions will come in the medium term and we hold the government accountable for its choices. Already, the combined impact of mass hiring, increased ATA and the implementation of the new pension plan leads to a 14% increase in the wage bill in a single year,” it noted in the report.

Comments from DIPA. In addition to the opposition DISY, the Municipal Council of DIPAmade specific reference to the report of the state budget 2024 on the state wage bill. As DIPA wrote in its recommendations, "the government and the Ministry of Finance correctly identified and focused on addressing the problem of inelastic spending and especially the state wage bill. The state wage bill needs to be streamlined, so we should act proactively. The decision to conduct a special study on the rationalization of the state wage bill by special experts from abroad, on the basis of international and European standards, is a first, but at the same time, very important and necessary step. The effort to curb public sector employment through a small overall increase in new positions in the 2024 State Budget confirms the government’s intentions.

Revenue and expenditure Budgeted revenues and budgeted general government expenditures for FY2024 will have revenues of €13.8 billion, up 7.2% compared to 2023, and spending of €12.9 billion, up 6.4% compared to 2023. According to the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework 2024-2026, revenue of €14.4 billion is forecast for the general government. €14.9 billion and spending of €13.7 billion, €14.03 billion, for the years 2025 and 2026, respectively. Relative to the central government, the state budget for 2024 forecasts revenue (excluding financial flows) of €9.89 billion, up 9.6% compared to the revised revenue for 2023 of €9.02 billion, and expenditure (excluding loan and investment repayments) of €10.5 billion, which is up by 17.7% compared to 2023 estimated at €8.9 billion.

The primary expenditures for the three-year period from 2024 to 2026 are allocated as follows: social benefits (€5.94 billion), co-financed projects (€1.28 billion), operating expenses (€1.02 billion), roads (€414 million), maintenance and repairs (€356 million), construction projects (€220.72 million), and infrastructure projects (€139.7 million). The three-year budget also includes green development projects and actions amounting to €900 million, as well as digital transformation projects worth €288.3 million.

[This article was translated from its Greek original]