Belka says deficit increase needed and criticizes July budget amendment

The man widely tipped to be the next Finance Minister, Marek Belka, announced yesterday that it would be necessary to make a further modification to this year's budget, increasing the planned deficit by an additional zl.8 billion to zl.10 billion. The Rzeczpospolita daily quotes Belka as saying that the new Sejm, which could deal with the budget at its second session, would be asked to adopt new tax proposals. Belka said that the budget amendment introduced in July had been ineffective, since it had failed to specify the necessary spending cuts. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) M.T.