Fiscal Council seeks HIGHER social protection BUDGET, especially for children

Finance Minister Sinisa Mali and Labour Labour Minister  Darija Kisic have talked with the members of the Fiscal Council about the proposal of social and tax policy measures for reducing inequality and poverty risk.

The finance minister said that an analysis of the economic effects of the measures should be done and that the talks would continue.

The Fiscal Council proposes an increase in social protection expenditures of about 0.2% to 0.3% of GDP, as well as the bulk of this money being directed to children, that is, an increase in the amount of child benefits and the number of children covered.

Now about 250,000 children receive child benefit, which is practically every fifth child in Serbia.

„Our proposal is to increase this, that every third child receives the benefit, i.e. more than 400,000 children, and that the amount of the child benefit be increased by a quarter. And of course, to regularly align it with inflation, which is currently not low in Serbia, so that families with children should be better protected from the beginning of next year, because we expect a crisis in Europe and the world, and in Serbia the situation will be much more unfavourable,“ Altiparmakov said.

The Fiscal Council estimates that there are possibilities and the need to increase budget allocations for social protection by about 10 percent, and that it is justified to allocate additional funds of RSD 14 billion for the child benefit program in the budget for the next year.

Izvor: RTS, agencije

Foto: Beta/Miloš Miškov