National Council continues budget debate
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 04:40
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On Monday afternoon, the National Council will continue discussing the budget for 2024 and the financial plan for the years 2025 to 2027. Expenditure on the army, regional passenger transport, social asylum assistance and development cooperation are likely to be the main topics of discussion.
Last Thursday, the upper chamber discussed spending on agriculture and promoting the regions as a business location. Like the Council of States before it, it decided in particular to leave the funds for direct payments to farmers at the 2023 level. The Federal Council had proposed a reduction of 2% or CHF 54.8 million. This corresponds to the cross-sectional reduction that is also applied in other areas.
Parliament also wants to spend more money on promoting Swiss wine, rare livestock breeds and protecting livestock than the national government. The debate on Monday is likely to focus in particular on the areas in which savings are to be made in return.
Controversial army spending
The majority of the National Council's Finance Committee (FK-N) would like to approve CHF 30 million less for social assistance in the asylum sector than requested by the Federal Council. Like the federal government, it is also in favor of reducing the federal contribution by five million francs compared to the current year.
Left-wing minorities in the preliminary consultation committee oppose both proposals. Instead, the left wing of the Council would like to reduce the credit for armaments expenditure and armaments investments by the army. Specifically, an increase of CHF 50 million for regional transport is under discussion, as also advocated by the Council of States.
The National Council will also have to decide on a motion from the ranks of the SVP, according to which Switzerland should spend one percent of its gross domestic product on national defense as early as 2030 - instead of 2035 as requested by the Federal Council. The Council of States approved an identical motion last week.
The SVP also put forward several proposals to spend less on development cooperation and contributions to international organizations than requested by the Federal Council.
Council of States cuts debt brake
Last Tuesday, the Council of States approved a budget with a structural deficit of over CHF 66 million - which is actually not permitted under the debt brake. To ensure that the legal requirements can still be met, the small chamber subsequently decided on a credit freeze.
Even before the second day of the budget debate in the National Council, it is clear that the Council of States will have to deal with the budget again. One financially significant difference concerns regional policy. Unlike the Council of States, the National Council decided on Thursday not to make a new contribution of CHF 25 million to the corresponding fund this year.
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