Budget fate remains unclear after proposed cuts fall short of expectations

The fate of the 2002 austerity budget remained unclear yesterday, after Cabinet members failed to offer alternatives to spending cuts demanded by the Finance Minister. The Cabinet committees rejected Jaroslaw Bauc's deficit-limiting package last week, and ministers were supposed to present their own belt-tightening measures instead. But after Bauc pulled together proposals from all but one ministry yesterday, the new spending levels fell short of preventing the 2002 budget gap from surpassing a vast 11% of GDP. Aleksandra Gieros, spokesperson for Bauc, said, "We don't know what will happen next with the budget." Among the proposals for cuts submitted were those by the European Integration Committee (KIE), which placed 28 acts within the range of integration with the European Union (EU) on its list of potential suspensions. However, the KIE later agreed to suspend only five, after the other 23 were deemed as priority ones whose delay would bring more losses than gains. The Education Ministry has submitted proposals for cutting its expenditure by zl.1 billion. The government will today deal with a revised budget proposal, prepared by the Finance Ministry on the basis of remarks put forward by the various ministries. However, spokesperson Gieros is not optimistic. "We were hoping for alternatives to our plan, but all we got were critical comments," she said. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Reuters) P.W.