TALLINN 's The government has rejected two drafts for the 2006 state budget put forward by Finance Minister Aivar Soerd, since they both called for a deficit.
Both of the drafts handed to the Cabinet showed revenues at 57.1 billion kroons (3.65 billion euros), with one of them setting out expenditures at 57.2 billion kroons and the other at 58.6 billion kroons. The shortfall was expanded further by a gap in the budgets of the medical insurance fund and local government budgets in the amount of nearly 250 million kroons.
Government spokesperson Inga Jagomagi said the state budget has to be in balance. "The Cabinet didn't discuss either option yesterday, having considered them unprepared," Jagomagi was quoted as saying by the daily Postimees.
"A new blueprint of the budget will be submitted to the government next week that will be contain the budget's potential breakdown," she said.
In the more conservative blueprint, expenditures arising from the three-party coalition agreement amounted to 2.1 billion kroons, while in the more lavishing draft they amounted to 3.5 billion kroons.
Officials at the Finance Ministry on Thursday refused to say what expenditures provided for by the coalition agreement were to be put off under the more conservative plan.
