Berlin The federal government will continue to take on large amounts of debt next year. Instead of the planned 17 billion euros, the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) is now planning around 35 billion euros in new loans.
This emerges from the adjustment template for the 2023 federal budget, which is available to the Handelsblatt. On Thursday, the Bundestag will finally adopt the federal budget for 2023.
Despite the significantly higher debt, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is sticking to the debt brake next year. Because the economy is heading into a downturn, according to the logic of the debt brake, Lindner can now take on around 35 billion euros in debt instead of the previous 17 without violating the rule. The coalition wants to exploit this scope.
For example, due to high inflation, interest payments will rise from 30 to 38 billion euros next year. There is also a range of other spending to address the energy crisis that will require higher debt.
Most of the measures to combat the crisis, however, run in an auxiliary budget that has a volume of 200 billion euros. The federal government intends to use around 120 billion euros of this in the next year.
86 billion for gas and electricity price brakes
The electricity price brake will cost around 43 billion euros and the gas price brake 40 billion euros, around 15 billion euros are earmarked for supporting the ailing gas supplier Uniper.
>> Also read: How will electricity prices develop in the future?
Ten billion euros in new loans are also planned for the stock pension, which is scheduled to start in 2023. However, the liabilities for this do not fall under the debt brake.
There are also some shifts in the defense budget. The expenditure on ammunition planned for the coming year will rise by 125 million euros to 1.1 billion euros, because stocks here have run dangerously low. The price of raw materials is also reflected in the household. The amount for fuel will be increased by almost a third to 320 million euros.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht’s (SPD) department responded to criticism from the Federal Court of Auditors for the EUR 100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr and backed individual projects with specific figures.
Electricity price brake
43
billion euro
will the federal government’s electricity price brake cause costs.
For the nuclear-capable F-35 combat aircraft, 635 million euros are planned for the coming year and up to 8.8 billion euros in the following years. The Israeli-American missile defense system Arrow 3, for which three billion euros are planned for 2023, was newly included in the budget.
In order to speed up armaments projects, the federal government wants to set up 150 new positions in the Bundeswehr Procurement Office. 100 new jobs are planned for the new Federal Criminal Police Office, 60 for the energy defense shield.
In principle, however, the federal government wants to save on staff. As can be seen from a decree from the Federal Ministry of Transport to its subordinate authorities, new jobs may only be created under certain conditions.
In order to speed up armaments projects, the federal government wants to set up 150 new positions in the Bundeswehr Procurement Office.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
According to the letter from the head of the central department, which is available to the Handelsblatt, “probably for a long time” after the increase in jobs in recent years, “concrete job savings will have to be made again”.
Lindner wants to save on staff
The Federal Ministry of Finance will insist “more strongly than before” that new jobs would only be approved if jobs were no longer available for other tasks. “The previous possibility of recruiting a relatively large number of additional positions for parliamentary procedures will also be limited to very few, politically particularly important projects in the foreseeable future,” it continues.
In the transport industry there is criticism of the new economy. “We have to eliminate the investment backlog of the past,” demands the presidency of the transport forum in a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and other federal ministers.
The signatories include the head of Deutsche Bahn AG, Richard Lutz, BP CEO Wolfgang Langhoff, as well as board members from DHL, Hochtief Lufthansa and Mercedes-Benz.
>> Also read: Traffic lights and countries continue to argue about citizen money
In 2023, Lindner will probably also have to forego 665 million euros in revenue from the truck toll. As the Handelsblatt learned from coalition circles, a draft law for a higher toll from January 1, 2023 was removed from the agenda of the Bundestag.
While the SPD and FDP wanted to make minimal adjustments to the toll in view of the high energy costs, the Greens called for a far-reaching toll reform that would almost double the current income of almost eight billion euros.
Now it is unclear how to proceed. In the transport industry it was said: “None of this has anything to do with planning security.”
More: Lindner wants to plan ten billion euros in the 2023 budget for the share pension