German finance ministry is working on a € 57 billion support plan for municipalities to help them cope with falling tax revenues due to the coronavirus epidemic, ministry document said on Saturday Reuters.
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Finance Minister Olaf Scholz wants to help German municipalities balance their finances and is also considering additional aid for the most heavily indebted municipalities. " This protective shield must not only help cities to overcome current difficulties but also allow them to do their jobs better ," explains Olaf Scholz in this " roadmap ".
The federal government wants the sixteen German Länder to cover half of the costs and hopes that Parliament will approve all of this aid by the end of the year, the document said.
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Germany expects tax revenue at all levels of the state to fall by nearly € 100 billion this year compared to original budget, due to coronavirus health crisis and measures containment measures put in place to combat the epidemic. The shortfall for municipalities would amount to more than 15 billion euros.
In the medium term until 2024, the hole in the tax revenues of the federal government, the governments of the Länder and the municipalities, should reach 315.9 billion euros. According to the weekly Der Spiegel, Olaf Scholz is preparing for the end of the summer a budgetary collective which could foresee 100 billion euros of additional debt in order to compensate for the fall in tax revenues. (Christian Kraemer and Michael Nienaber, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse)