PM calls on the party to fully back Hausner's budget cuts

Prime Minister Leszek Miller announced that he is going to encourage his party to support the budget cuts program announced by Economy Minister Jerzy Hausner last week. "My responsibility is to have this program implemented by all possible means," Miller said in an interview for TV news channel TVN24. "If we do not undertake the tasks included in the rationalization plans, in two or three years time, the situation will deteriorate and it will hurt much more," he added. In Miller's opinion, Poland has to enter a path of economic growth as only then, will there be more jobs and unemployment will drop. "Economic growth is the number one issue and all other issues must be subordinated to this one," Miller said. In related news, the government is considering reducing Value Added Tax from 22% to 19%. The initiator of the project, Jerzy Hausner, does not know yet whether the change will take place in 2005, 2006 or in 2007. (Parkiet, p. 8) A.Z.