The GAP Institute has analyzed the budget allocations for 2024, comparing them with the previous year, after the approval of the 2024 Budget Project by the Government and then in the first reading by the Assembly.
As stated in the report, in the drafting of the Project Budget of 2024, the Government has shown itself to be more prudent in the planning of revenues and expenses. This is because a slowed growth of budget revenues and expenses is predicted, by 5 and 3 percent, reaching the amount of three and 3.3 billion euros.
"Capital expenditures are planned to increase more than current ones, however, their planned increase is relatively low compared to the previous year (15%). In the main categories of current expenses, the category of salaries and allowances is planned to have an increase of 59.9 million euros or 8%, mainly due to the increase in the monetary value of the public sector salary coefficient from 105 to 110 euros. With the 2024 Budget Project, space has been created for 2,308 additional jobs, of which 1,793 for the central level (mainly in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (police) and the Ministry of Defense (FSK) and 515 for the municipal level), says the summary of this the institute.
It is further stated that the rate of realization of the budget allocated for capital investments has remained low. As last year, this year as well, GAP considers that the Government has allocated more funds to the municipalities led by the Vetëvendosje Movement.
"Out of a total of 859.2 million euros planned for capital expenditures for 2024, about 83% are continuation of previous projects and 17% are planned for new capital projects. The share of the budget allocated for capital investments in the Gross Domestic Product has a downward trend from 2017, and in the years 2021 and 2022 it has remained unchanged, at the level of 8%. Moreover, the rate of realization of the budget allocated for capital investments remains low, at the level of 60% in 2022 and at the level of 35% until September of 2023. This year, the value of new capital investments of the central level of intended for specific projects in municipalities is 21.8 million euros. Similar to last year, this year too, the government has allocated more funds to the municipalities led by Vetëvendosje (VV), where over half of this amount (59.5% or 13 million euros) has been directed to the four municipalities led by VV (Gjilan , Kamenica, Podujevo and Shtime). These municipalities make up 14.5% of the area in Kosovo and 11.6% of the population," the report states.
