The recipe to balance general government finances, stop the growth of the debt ratio, and close the long-term sustainability gap was published by the Finance Ministry on Thursday afternoon.
The need to strengthen general government finances has grown to the point where a number of measures are necessary to improve the annual budgetary position by at least €9 billion over the next two parliamentary terms, according to the Ministry of Finance.
To ”balance general government finances, stop the growth of the debt ratio and nearly close the long-term sustainability gap,” what is required is an improvement of €6 billion in the next parliamentary term starting next year and €3 billion in the following term.
The means to achieve the targets were not new. To boost employment, economic growth and general government finances, the country needs ”ambitious structural reforms” and ”public investments in research, development and innovation.” Something should also be done to Finland’s fragmented municipal structure, and regional state administration should be developed through ”multi-sectoral agencies.”
Reforms of public administration were considered vital. More efficiencies can be achieved by improving services and structures, use of premises, public procurement and automation. The ministry stated that a key element in the process is investments in digitalisation.
Tax increases cannot be avoided, but the ministry recommended that future governments would ”exercise restraint concerning increases to the taxation of labour, and should primarily look elsewhere for higher tax revenues.”
(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
