Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has admitted that a gap in the state budget is broader than it was planned and said that the government is planning to revise the state budget in a technical sense which means that the funds will be re-allocated within the existing items earmarked for the ministries in the budget.
"We underperformed in the wage budget. We planned to spend nearly two billion kuna less on the salaries in the public sector, but we have not not make it," the premier told the national broadcaster (HTV) on Sunday evening.
Milanovic explained that this year, the budget revenues were higher than planned and than expected, which he interpreted as the proof that the finance ministry had worked well,
We will have managed to reduce the entire budget deficit from 15 billion kuna last year to slightly over 10 billion kuna this year, Milanovic said.
He said that the Croatian state had been spending more than what it had been created as a new value for five years and that "an end must be put to an illusion that the things may go on that way", announcing the strict fiscal rules in the future.
"We must be aware that it is high time we behaved according to the situation and rationally."
Asked about the planned investment boom, Milanovic said that Croatia was working on projects in the infrastructure and energy sectors, however, the situation was tough.
He recalled that Croatia's delegation led by President Ivo Josipovic was currently on a visit to Qatar and that Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic was there for talks on plans for constructing a liquefied natural gas terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk.
"This would be a great investment. It is a strategic European investment interesting for many our neighbours countries. Strategically, it is more important for Croatia than the connection to the South Stream (oil pipeline) in terms of the country's energy independence.," Milanovic said.
The premier dismissed speculations that his relations with President Jospovic had strained.
As for the accusations of Istrian County Prefect and Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) leader Ivan Jakovcic that the leadership of Milanovic's Social Democratic Party (SDP) tried to destabilise Istria when it decided to dissolve the local SDP branches in Istria County and in the City of Pula, Milanovic said that Jakovcic's conduct was not fair.
"What is going in the IDS is a surprise for me," Milanovic said adding that his cabinet was well-intentioned regarding the project of a new block in the Plomin thermal power plant and other investments in Istria.
He reiterated that the SDP branches had been dissolved due tio their political passivity.
