National Council debates the budget for the coming year
Published: Thursday, Dec 7th 2023, 04:50
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The National Council begins its debate on the 2024 budget on Thursday. Like the Council of States before it, the majority of the National Council's Finance Committee (FK-N) also wants to spend considerably more on agriculture than the Federal Council. In other areas, however, the committee is less willing to spend.
On Tuesday, the Council of States decided to make the same amount of money available for direct payments in the coming year as in 2023 - around CHF 2.8 billion. Compared to the national government's proposal, this means additional expenditure of CHF 54.8 million.
The Council of States also allocated more money for further measures in the area of agriculture - including the promotion of sales of Swiss wine, herd protection and the promotion of sugar beet production. In total, the additional expenditure excluding direct payments amounts to CHF 17.2 million.
In addition, the small chamber wants to approve CHF 55 million more for regional passenger transport than the Federal Council. And it refused to waive a contribution of almost CHF 25 million to the fund for the new regional policy - against the wishes of the majority of its Finance Committee. The latter was of the opinion that the fund already contained sufficient resources.
Debt brake scored
All in all, the resolutions of the Council of States resulted in a structural deficit of a good CHF 66 million - which the debt brake does not actually permit. To ensure that the legal requirements can still be met, the small chamber subsequently decided on a credit freeze - an instruction to the Federal Council not to exhaust the approved credits for non-committed expenditure.
As far as direct payments are concerned, the Finance Committee of the National Council, like the Council of States, does not wish to reduce funding. As far as the other additional expenditure for agriculture is concerned, its proposal corresponds to the resolutions of the Council of States, with the exception of two items amounting to CHF 3.1 million.
Like the lower chamber, the National Council committee wants to spend CHF 3.9 million more on breeding and preserving Swiss animal breeds, CHF 6.2 million more on promoting the sale of Swiss wine and CHF 4 million more on protecting livestock.
However, the majority of the National Council's Finance Committee is much more cautious when it comes to spending on public transport and regional policy. In these areas, their proposal does not envisage any additional expenditure compared to the Federal Council's proposal.
Numerous minority motions
The National Council will deal with a large number of minority and individual proposals in the budget debate. Once again, it will discuss reducing the funds for direct payments by one percent compared to 2023 and approving only CHF 27.4 million more than the Federal Council would like. This compromise was originally proposed by the Finance Committee of the Council of States.
The large chamber will not conclude the first round of discussions on the budget until next Monday.
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