Federal administration has to tighten its belt
The House of Representatives has followed the Senate in approving federal budget cuts designed to save around SFr5 billion ($4 billion) between 2006 and 2008.
Opposed by the Left and the Greens, the spending cuts programme will primarily affect funding for the civil service, the armed forces, asylum and transport infrastructure.
The Senate gave its approval to the cutbacks in the spring session. Following changes by the House of Representatives the package will now return to the Senate for further discussion.
After 14 hours of debate, the House decided on cuts totalling SFr4.998 billion – SFr94 million more than the government’s saving target, and SFr284 million more than the figure agreed by the Senate.
It is the third round of federal cuts to be approved by parliament. In December 2003 parliament approved a package of spending cuts worth more than SFr3 billion. The first round was in 1998.
Heated debate
The savings plan was passed following at times heated debate between the centre-right and centre-left parties.
The government’s proposal to making sweeping cuts to the federal administration staff was particularly controversial, but the House finally approved cuts in this area of SFr50 million a year, or SFr150 million in total by 2008.
It is not clear how many jobs will be affected if the cuts go through. It was previously estimated that more than 4,000 civil service jobs would be lost by 2010 as a result of budget trimming.
The axe will fall most heavily on the army, where SFr447 million will be shaved off the budget over the three-year period. In the area of asylum provision, cuts of SFr213 million are anticipated.
Major cuts will also take place in road infrastructure. The House accepted the government’s plan to cut funding in this area by SFr188 million.
Although the cuts will affect some road building projects, Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz assured parliamentarians that the extension of the motorway network would go ahead as planned.
The House disagreed with the Senate on a total of six different points, including funding for universities. It approved cuts to university funding of SFr200 million, SFr60 million less than the figure agreed on by the smaller chamber.
swissinfo with agencies
The government wants to cut its total debt to SFr126 billion by the end of 2005.
Including cantonal and local authority debt, the total debt of the administration exceeded SFr250 billion at the end of 2004.
The federal budget recorded a deficit of SFr1.7 billion instead of the aniticipated SFr3.5 billion.
The savings programme agreed by the House of Representatives foresees cuts of SFr4.998 billion in federal expenditure between 2006 and 2008.
The package exceeds planned government cuts by SFr94 million.
The difference between the packages agreed by the two houses of parliament is SFr284 million. The Senate will now have to reconsider the plan.
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