Status: 10.08.2023, 20:00 p.m.
By: Amy Walker
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The federal government's draft budget is causing a lot of trouble. Savings have to be made everywhere, which is why difficult decisions have to be made. A listing.
Berlin – The German government wants to spend significantly less money next year than in the previous two years. According to the draft, federal spending is expected to fall to 445.7 billion euros next year – more than 30 billion less than this year. The draft has been approved by the cabinet and will then be adopted in parliament in the autumn.
But until then, there will be some heated discussions about the austerity course. Gradually, it becomes known where the various ministries want to cut back.
Only two ministries get more money
Cuts will be made in almost all ministries between 2023 and 2024. Only in the defense and in the Ministry of Transport there should be an increase in spending. And the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) also plays a special role: while expenditure in the budget will fall from 14.6 to 11 billion euros, the BMWK still has access to the special fund in the Climate and Transformation Fund. From this alone, expenditure of 2024.57 billion euros is planned for 6.
In the other ministries, however, it is now a matter of cutting where possible. The more details become known, the clearer it becomes that the austerity budget will be felt everywhere. The Ministry of Finance had the task of distributing the expenditure among the various ministries. How they then use the money is up to them to decide. And sometimes difficult decisions have to be made.
Bafög, digital, parental allowance: cuts are made everywhere
How the ministries want to spend the money allocated to them is currently being negotiated internally. However, individual items are now gradually leaking out. For example, there are to be funding cuts in digitization, security, rural areas and Bafög. An incomplete list of the cuts known so far:
So far, the cuts are most noticeable in digitization (from 377 to 3.3 million euros), in the area of support for rural areas (from 1.1 billion to 840 million euros) and for Bafög (from 2.6 to 1.4 billion euros).
Not listed are two major items in the social sector. For example, the funds for the citizen's allowance and for the job centers are to be cut by 700 million euros: from 44.2 billion to 43.5 billion euros. In addition, cuts in the area of parental allowance are planned: The income limit above which parents cannot receive parental allowance is to be reduced from 300,000 euros to 150,000 euros of taxable income.
Christian Lindner in the Bundestag: Business associations want a "readjustment" of his tax plan. © Kay Nietfeld/dpa
And elsewhere must also be cut. The funds for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief are to be cut by almost ten percent and for the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance by more than 20 percent. In the Olympic year 2024, the government is also planning to cut funding of around four million euros for the Institutes for Applied Training Science (IAT) in Leipzig and for Research and Development of Sports Equipment (FES) in Berlin. This is 19 percent less than in the previous year.
With material from dpa and AFP