FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The draft budget for the year 2024 was voted in principle on Monday, in a session that lasted for 5 minutes after the opposition opposed the draft budget and lit flares in the Assembly.
But the opposition is not the only party that opposes the Budget project, the United Movement also takes the same position. According to the Joint Movement, the budget project reflects misgovernance and abuse of citizens' income, and once again students have been left in oblivion without being offered help where they have no other choice but to leave the auditoriums.
Full statement:
The government's proposed budget for 2024 reflects the misgovernance, abuse and indifference of the ruling party to the woes and problems of the vast majority of society. The text of the report is full of enthusiastic abstract figures, but its detailed analysis shows that even in 2024, the work and wealth of the Albanian people will be abused, as usual.
In the 2024 budget, no real increase in pensions is foreseen, but at best only their indexation. We must not forget for a moment that Albania is one of the countries with the lowest pensions in Europe, where the minimum pension, together with the allowances, does not exceed the limits of 100 Euros, while the average pension remains around 150 Euros.
The structural cause of the remaining in lieu of pensions is the low number of contributors to the mandatory social insurance scheme. According to official figures, the best expected ratio (in the years 2024-2026) between contributors (employees paying social security) and beneficiaries (pensioners) is 1.4. Meanwhile, to have a healthy social insurance scheme, this ratio should be between 2.8 and 3.3.
The main factors in this low ratio between the number of contributors and beneficiaries are the mass emigration of the working-age population, high unemployment (currently around 11%) and undeclared work. The latter is also reflected in the most optimistic forecast for the years 2024-2026, where the ratio between contributors to the social insurance scheme and the number of the working-age population will not be higher than 43%.
Beneficiaries of the economic assistance scheme will not have better luck either. For the poorest citizens, the government does not foresee any more aid, not taking into consideration the scandalously low level of economic aid in our country, nor the expected increase in prices.
The government's indifference to hundreds of thousands of pensioners and beneficiaries of economic aid is even more shocking if we refer to the government's own data, which boasts that in 2024 it expects to collect 19.5 billion lek more in revenue than this year. If we were to add to this figure the 1 billion euros that are wasted and stolen on average every year from public institutions, in Albania it would be quite possible to establish a minimum living wage, as well as a significant increase in pensions and economic assistance.
Even the students will not escape the government's indifference. For them, neither fee reductions, nor subsidization of books, housing and food, nor an inherent increase in state funding for public university life are foreseen. Despite students dropping out in droves – due to high fees, lack of job prospects and high living costs – the wizarding government we have over us predicts that in the next two years we will see an increase of 16.5 % of the number of students enrolled in second and third level programs in public universities. If it weren't for crying, such a prediction would make us laugh. Auditors are dropping out at a rapid rate, while at the second and third level of studies, students will continue to pay high, unsubsidized fees.
The government's disregard for the poverty and social problems of the vast majority of society becomes even more revolting when we see how generous the state budget will continue to be to the oligarchs who have benefited from concession contracts and PPPs. The 11 concessionaires will benefit 14.3 billion ALL in 2024, among which the concessions already declared corrupt such as the sterilization of medical equipment, the incinerator of Tirana, etc. are included.
To these concessions, in most cases unnecessary or abusive from the very beginning, is added the heavy burden of compensation that the Albanian state must pay to the beneficiaries of previous tenders or concessions, who have won the trial against the Albanian state in the Court International Arbitration. Due to legal violations - intentional or as a result of incompetence - the Albanian state owes private companies about 173 million euros, among which the companies Hydro Srl (Becchetti case) and Copri Construction (Tirana-Elbasan road) stand out for the large amount. . Other millions of euros that could go to increasing pensions and economic assistance.
The future of the economy and social balances in Albania becomes even more gloomy when the continuation of a model of unstable economic development is noticed. For example, in the first half of the year, the sectors with the largest contribution to the aggregate supply remain construction and the sale and purchase of real estate. On the other hand, the development of tourism has been accompanied by the decrease in income from the export of goods. The Albanian economy continues to be supported by remittances. The government boasts that they have increased by 17.8% compared to a year ago, glossing over the fact that this means that more citizens of working age have left Albania. The instability of the current development model will be exacerbated by the government's refusal to promote industrial production and skilled services, as well as by a taxation model that hits labor more than capital and places the heaviest fiscal burden on consumers of basic goods.
All of the above should be the catalyst for a powerful parliamentary debate on the budget of 2024. Unfortunately, like the ruling party, the pseudo-position is interested in the spectacle of fire, smoke, crawling, fists and irresponsible lifting of cards.
The Albanian people deserve much better than that!
Lini një Përgjigje