Election year budget becomes official

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is seen in this file photo while presenting the 2013 budget to media. Şimşek says cutting the budget gap is a priority.

The highest share of the central government budget for 2013, which was released on the Official Gazette yesterday, has been granted to the Finance Ministry, at 99.1 billion Turkish Liras. This is followed by the Treasury Undersecretaries at 71.8 billion liras and the Education Ministry at 47.5 billion liras.

Next year’s budget spending is estimated at a total of 404 billion liras, while revenue is expected to amount to 307.1 billion liras, producing a deficit of 33.9 billion, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Oct. 16. The focus is particularly on next year’s budget, as many suspect that the government may loosen its financial discipline and increase spending to woo more voters at the possible local elections next year. The government plans to employ 79,000 public servants in 2013, Şimşek said. Direct financial support to farmers will increase by 25 percent reaching 9 billion liras for the next year, he said, promising to protect all segments of the society against inflation.

The defense and social security ministries were promised large budgets at 20.3 billion liras and 32.1 billion liras respectively, while the Justice Ministry will have only 6.8 billion liras. The budgets of the Forest and Water Works Ministry and Transport Ministry will exceed 10 billion liras each.

The Gendarmerie General Command will receive 5.8 billion liras and the Security General Directorate 14.7 billion liras. The budget for the Public Hospitals Authority is 8.2 billion liras. The parliamentary budget will be lowered to 773 million liras next year, and further reduced to 686 million in 2014.