06. 07. 10. - 13:00

Pröll defends 'late' 2011 budget

People’s Party (ÖVP) Finance Minister Josef Pröll has dismissed accusations the 2011 budget was delayed because of upcoming elections.

Opposition party leaders turned their guns on Pröll and Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann earlier this year after they announced their decision to wait until after the provincial elections of Styria and Vienna to present next year’s budget.

Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Greens fear harsh cuts in public spending hitting the poor harder than the rich are ahead as Austria needs to reduce its state debt and budget deficit to match the European Union’s (EU) criteria by 2013.

FPÖ boss Heinz-Christian Strache and Greens leader Eva Glawischnig were outraged by the coalition’s decision to postpone the revelation of detailed tax and cut measures after the crucial provincial ballots.

SPÖ parliamentary president Barbara Prammer has also criticised Faymann and Pröll over the controversial delay – but labelled the upcoming year an "extraordinary one" which needed unusual decisions recently.

Pröll described the 2011 budget the "biggest financial restoration package an Austrian government has ever agreed on". He promised the measures will come into force on 1 January 2011.

The minister rubbished accusations however that he would delay the presentation due to the upcoming provincial elections. "The Vienna election is no criteria for me. Quality is more important than speed in these negotiations," he said.

Pröll already made clear a few weeks ago that Austrian banks will be burdened with a solidarity tax from next year. The finance minister hopes to rake in an extra 500 million Euros a year with the tax described by them as an "appropriate measure" since the state provided the country’s bank houses with subsidies to get through the crisis last year.

Opposition leaders feared the coalition would also drop a "value-added tax bombshell" and raise various other taxes that affect people with little income the most.

Strache accused SPÖ and ÖVP of wasting taxpayers’ money by contributing 2.3 billion Euros to the international rescue bid for troubled Greece. Glawischnig meanwhile appealed to the coalition to stop supporting mineral oil trade activities and focus on supporting new "green" energy technologies instead.