As of: March 7, 2024, 2:42 p.m
By: Max Schäfer
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The Federal Audit Office accuses the traffic light coalition of not keeping its promises.
As a result, it tears a hole in the household.
Bonn – The Federal Audit Office is making serious accusations against the federal government during budget discussions.
“The federal government is not implementing its own guidelines and goals,” says a report to the Bundestag.
Specifically, this is about reducing subsidies.
These put a strain on the already severely strained budget.
Although the traffic light government had announced the reduction of subsidies in the coalition agreement and the Bundestag had repeatedly called on the coalition to reform existing subsidies, the federal government is sticking to “inefficient tax breaks,” complains the Court of Auditors, according to Handelsblatt
,
which has the relevant report.
Federal Audit Office: Federal government breaks promise to reduce subsidies
The government broke its promise to evaluate all tax breaks and made a proposal to reduce subsidies in view of the budget deficit, explains the Court of Auditors.
He also complains that the federal government has “not initiated any new external evaluations by independent experts”.
16 tax breaks were last examined by external bodies more than ten years ago.
The Federal Audit Office also accuses the federal government of concealing the effects of the subsidies on the budget.
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the tax breaks reduce federal revenue by 18.4 billion euros.
However, the Court of Auditors criticizes these figures in its report, which is available to the
Handelsblatt
.
The report cites the government's concept of subsidies as the cause.
This ignores “further tax breaks with significant reductions in revenue, some of which are harmful to the environment or climate,” reports the
Handelsblatt
.
In addition to state revenue, this would also put a strain on the environment and climate.
Reform of the “subsidy policy, which has been outdated for years” can ease the burden on the budget – according to the Court of Auditors
Subsidies play a crucial role, especially with regard to the budget deficit.
If the government reforms the “subsidy policy, which has been outdated for years,” it could “make a significant contribution to budget consolidation.”
In the upcoming negotiations on the 2025 budget, the traffic light coalition must close a gap of 15 to 25 billion euros.
One option is to reduce subsidies.
The traffic light also recognizes this, which has also stipulated in the coalition agreement that it wants to gain “additional budgetary flexibility” by reducing “superfluous, ineffective and environmentally and climate-damaging subsidies and expenditure” in the budget.
There are enough ideas: traffic light coalition misses opportunities to reduce subsidies
The only attempt so far to take the project into account in the plan for 2024 given the budget gap is to delete the vehicle tax exemption for farmers and to reduce the discounts on agricultural diesel.
The government has rejected the idea of ending the tax exemption.
The agricultural diesel subsidy should be phased out.
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Make plans, but don't keep them: Finance Minister Christian Lindner (left) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck are breaking the traffic light promise to reduce subsidies, according to the Court of Auditors.
(Archive photo) © Britta Pedersen/dpa
According to the ACA report, there are ideas within the federal government as to which tax breaks can be eliminated.
The Ministry of Finance, together with other ministries, has drawn up a list of 21 tax breaks that should be deleted.
This is reported by the
Handelsblatt
.
It is unknown which subsidies are on the strike list.
“We ask for your understanding that we cannot comment on internal government votes,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance in response to an
IPPEN.MEDIA
request.
Robert Habeck's Federal Ministry of Economics has also developed suggestions.
“The federal government was ultimately unable to decide on any of these proposals,” the report quoted an unnamed ministry as saying.
The federal government also receives information from external sources: the Taxpayers' Association has drawn up proposals for the budget.
(ms)