Tax advice: “The government could have spent 2 billion less on anti-COVID measures”
The Serbian Budget Council said the anti-pandemic measures could have cost 2 billion euros less than the government had spent.
“If anti-COVID measures were directed at threatened segments of the economy and population, up to €2 billion less could have been spent from the budget,” the independent government body said in its statement. last report.
The report adds that 5.4 billion euros were spent on the measures during the crisis. He also said that the strong fiscal policy measures were warranted but were not selective, which made them more costly.
About 1.5 billion euros could have been saved by providing aid to the population according to the same criteria as the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
“All things considered, we believe that some €2 billion, or around 4% of GDP, could have been saved if budgetary funds had been directed to the most affected segments of the economy and population with growth. GDP slightly lower,” the report said. mentioned. He recalled that funds for financial measures during the pandemic came from loans that increased Serbia’s public debt by some 6 billion euros in 2021 compared to the end of 2019.
The Fiscal Council further said that Serbia’s higher spending on its healthcare system compared to other Central and Eastern European countries was unavoidable due to decades of insufficient investment.
(Beta, 13.04.2022)
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