PM discusses budget plan with top party leaders

Prime Minister Jan Fischer met Thursday with Finance Minister Eduard Janota and the heads of the country’s two largest parties to familiarise them with Finance Ministry proposals for the 2010 state budget. Mr Janota has proposed increasing VAT rates, raising the tax on automobile fuels, and cutting budget spending. Speaking after the meeting, Social Democratic Party chairman Jíři Paroubek said he objects to the Finance Ministry’s recommendation that the measures be approved as a package. Mirek Topolánek of the Civic Democratic Party said that it would be up to the post-election government either to approve the caretaker government’s budget or to put forward its own plan. The Ministry of Finance has said that in the absence of the proposed changes, the budget deficit for 2010 could rise to 230 billion crowns.