Budget, Education and Science, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Transport

While the overall amounts of national budget spending and revenue will not change, the amendments detail the current spending of ministries and other public authorities.

The budgetary adaptations mean that 3 million euros are made available to top up payments for farmers in order to alleviate the difficult situation of the agricultural sector before the end of the year. This additional amount available will be used to top up EU emergency aid.

An additional EUR 5.6 million will be allocated to the Ministry of Education and Research, EUR 4.8 million of it for supporting private schools, EUR 421,000 for investments in higher education, EUR 220,000 for investments in vocational education and EUR 752,000 for supporting doctoral students.

As expenditures on means-tested family allowances were lower than expected this year, the 6.27 million euros that have become available have been allocated to the Ministry of Social Affairs for reducing waiting lists for technical aids used by disabled persons and for rehabilitation; to the Health Board for acquiring new laboratory equipment; to the Labour Inspectorate for acquiring working clothes and to the Government for restoring the reserve fund of the Government of the Republic.

The Ministry of Defence’s budget for defence-related special equipment will be increased by EUR 9 million, partially from the funds earmarked for investments in buildings and structures that have not been used.

EUR 6.77 million will be used to support Eesti Raudtee’ s infrastructure development projects; this had been earmarked for the national roads project and for the acquisition of boats for a connection to small islands but has now become available from the funds in the budget of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The passenger service operator Elron will receive an extra EUR 2.25 million towards train lease costs.

The Government presented a total of 84 amendments to the Riigikogu.

Over the nine months, EUR 5.9 billion have been paid to the national budget for 2015 – this is 69.8 % of the revenue planned for the year. National budget spending amounted to EUR 5.98 billion, which constitutes 69% of the planned spending for the year.

The budget for the current year is usually adapted each autumn because a national budget is prepared in autumn, and some of the funding needs may have changed by the same time next year. It is therefore appropriate to make amendments to ensure more efficient implementation of the national budget.