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Olaf Scholz during the video session for the G20 Congress on November 21: 40 billion euros for entrepreneurs suffering from the partial shutdown
Photo: Florian Gaertner / imago images / photothek
Because of the corona pandemic, the federal government wants to incur significantly more debts than initially planned.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to take on more than 160 billion euros in new debt, reported the Reuters news agency on Sunday, citing several representatives of the government commission.
This sum of the net borrowing would result from the additional expenditure in the so-called adjustment bill, which the Ministry of Finance sent the budget politicians of the Bundestag on Sunday to adjust the draft budget.
The "Bild" newspaper also reported in advance on Sunday, citing ministry circles on new debt of 160 billion euros.
So far, around 96 billion euros in new loans were planned for the next year in order to dampen the effects of the Corona crisis.
According to the newspaper, the cost of economic aid in the corona pandemic is rising: The finance minister is now planning almost 40 billion euros for entrepreneurs who are suffering from the partial shutdown.
Another reason for the higher borrowing is apparently that expenses planned for 2020 have been postponed to the next year.
The new debt of 218 billion euros approved for this year is expected to be far from being exhausted, said a representative of the coalition.
The Ministry of Finance listed the additional expenditure in the submission sent on Sunday to the budget politicians of the Bundestag for their clean-up meeting starting on Thursday.
According to the coalition, the precautionary title for corona-related measures such as vaccines has been increased by ten billion euros.
As a result of the car summit, a future fund at the Ministry of Economics will be equipped with one billion euros.
The Federal Foreign Office is receiving around 170 million euros more for humanitarian aid.
The Ministry of Labor gets 750 million euros more for labor market expenses such as Hartz IV.
The FDP politician Christian Dürr accused the coalition of the fact that the draft represented a lot of bureaucracy and ever higher debts.
"That is the opposite of what we need now," said the deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group.
"We cannot keep the fourth-largest economy in the world running permanently with debt."
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hpp / dpa / reuters
