House passes 2020 budget

The House of Representatives voted the state budget for 2020 on Wednesday evening with 29 votes in favour and 23 against.

MPs in the Republic of Cyprus also voted a series of amendments placing restrictions on certain provisions of the budget, which means the government will have to get the approval of the parliamentary committee of financial and budgetary affairs before it goes ahead with disbursing those funds.

The budget includes a total income of €9,999.7 million compared to €9,090.2 million in 2019, presenting an annual increase of 10%, due to a further enhancement of economic activity and an increase of contributions in the context of the NHS from March 1, 2020.

Total general government expenditure is foreseen to reach in 2020 €9,404 million, recording an annual increase of 13.8% due to the expected increase in expenditure in the context of the implementation of the NHS second phase from June 1, 2020.

The 2020 budget balance is projected to have a surplus of 2.7% of GDP. 

Last Friday, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides presented the state budget before the House of Representatives plenary. The budget debate in parliament started on Monday evening with a presentation of the budget report by the parliamentary committee of financial and budgetary affairs as well as parliamentary party leaders’ speeches. It continued with statements by all MPs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the same week, Turkish Cypriots in the north also approved a budget for next year according to media reports. While the administration in the northern part of the island is not recognized internationally -except by Turkey- an assembly of Turkish Cypriot representatives manages a host of isues including voting on a fiscal budget.

In the south, House of Representatives President Demetris Syllouris said next year’s budget is a historic one as it includes the parliament’s first autonomous budget which was approved by way of a parliament decision and was included in the state budget.

He also praised the fact that all 30 budgets of semi -governmental organisations and bodies were submitted to parliament for the first time before the the state budget vote, while 27 of them have been voted into legislation.