The government has invested only 900 thousand euros in the first two months of the year from internal funds

2024-03-21 08:36:01, Ekonomi CNA

The government has invested only 900 thousand euros in the first two months of

Budget revenues have increased significantly in recent years, but on the expenditure side, the weaknesses are large and are deepening from year to year.

Official data from the Ministry of Finance show that in the first two months of 2024, budget revenues reached 104 billion ALL (1 billion euros) with an annual increase of 7.3%, but next to budget expenditures, the most productive item of the budget, capital investments have entered a crisis cycle.

In total, for the two months of 2024, 930 million Lek or about 9 million Euros have been invested, of which only 95 million Lek or about 900 thousand have been invested from internal funds and the rest are foreign funds. The data show that capital investments were 78.4 percent lower than the plan for the period and about 29 percent less than the fact of the previous year.

The "blocking" of public investments calls into question the efficiency of taxes and the responsibility for their use at a time when our country still has large gaps in transport infrastructure, health and education.

Although in recent years the government has increased funding for public investments, on the other hand, their efficiency and use has been low. The capital investment fund increases with the annual budget changes, but it remains unrealized and almost 40 percent of the funds are allocated in December.

The government has invested only 900 thousand euros in the first two months of

On December 6, 2023, 430 million euros were paid in the item "public investments". This amount was as much as 38% of the annual investment fund of 118 billion lek (1.1 billion euros) that was realized during the last year.

The volume of investments with 2023 also remained unrealized even in relation to the plan. Of the 135 billion ALL planned to be invested in 2023, 118 billion ALL were realized or 12% less than the plan.

Investment payments remained at very low levels during the 10 months of January-October, while payments intensify only in the last two months of the year.

In the first six months of 2023, the government paid only 36 billion ALL or 30% of the annual fund, while in November and December it disbursed 64.2 billion ALL or 54% of the total allocated).

As can be seen from the data of the first two months of 2022, the concentration of investments in the last months of the year will be higher this year./ Monitor.al