It started on Monday in the Serbian Parliament extraordinary session with an agenda of 59 points. Among them is the proposal to rebalance the budget for 2026.
If Serbia's progress were to be judged according to it, the conclusion would be drawn that it is not in a hurry with the National Football Stadium, but that is why the country's military defense is very important to it.
Minister of Finance Sinish Mali praised the rebalancing of the budget at the session of the Serbian Parliament's Committee for Finances, the Republic Budget and the Control of the Spending of Public Funds, while members of the opposition parties criticized him and pointed out that the government is "buying voters' votes" with the new distribution of money in the state treasury.
Mali said that the Government of Serbia has proposed rebalancing the budget for 2026 because revenues are 112,5 billion dinars higher than planned, so about one billion euros will be distributed as aid to citizens and investments in capital infrastructure projects will continue.
The minister said that it is payment of assistance to pensioners is ensured, which starts on September 14, in the amounts of 20.000, 27.500 and 35.000 dinars, depending on the amount of the pension, and all adult citizens will receive financial assistance from 6.000 dinars, which will be partly from Shareholder's fund, and partly from the budget.
"Help for citizens is also in the form of vacation vouchers, reduction of medicine costs, additional payments to the Alimony Fund, as well as for parents-caregivers," Mali said.
Fiscal advice: They should have paid more to the poor
Member of the Fiscal Council Nikola Altiparmakov said that the budget rebalancing will increase the deficit, from 2,5 to 3,5 percent of GDP.
"Increasing the budget deficit is justified when the country is in crisis, which is not the case now because we have GDP growth," he said and added the good side of the rebalancing because it does not represent an immediate macroeconomic risk because, probably, the expenditures will not be carried out in full, so the budget deficit will be smaller than planned by the budget rebalancing and will be closer to three percent of GDP.
He added that the budget's revenues are also higher based on non-tax payments, primarily the profits of the National Bank of Serbia and some companies, but it is not known which companies these are.
According to the assessment of the Fiscal Council, said Altiparmakov, it would be better if the assistance to citizens was paid on the basis of social cards, that is, on the basis of household income.
He also pointed out that subsidies for railway companies were reduced, and those for the army and road companies were increased.
"Corruption, corruption and inflation"
Freedom and Justice Party MP Dušan Nikezić said that the budget revision is a "desperate attempt to buy votes" and will cause new debts for the state.
"There is nothing from the promised increase in economic growth and improvement in the standard of living because they were eaten by corruption, corruption and inflation," he said.
He assessed that it is a deception of the citizens that they will be paid aid of 6.000 dinars because the money that is paid from the Shareholder's Fund already belongs to them.
Where does the money go?
Forbes Serbia compared the document containing the amendments to this year's budget with the document of the initially adopted budget for 2026. It shows that the plan includes a significant increase in funds under the item "functioning of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces".
As can be seen in the documents, the funds that are within the budget of the Ministry of Defense intended for the "functioning of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Army" were increased by this rebalancing from the initially planned 71 billion dinars to 127 billion dinars.
From these 127 billion, as can be seen, wages, social benefits, maintenance, travel expenses, but also "machinery and equipment" are financed. The item "machinery and equipment" shows the biggest increase in costs. From 32,4 billion dinars, the planned expenditures have increased to 89,6 billion in 2026.
The rebalancing "recomposed" the expenses for EXPO 2027 and reduced this year's expenses for the National Stadium, adds Forbes. For example, this year's initial budget for the "EXPO Belgrade 2027" project (from which the construction of part of the EXPO facilities in Surčin is financed) amounted to 42,57 billion dinars. With the current rebalancing, it was reduced to 35,7 billion. It is estimated that so much will be spent for the obligations foreseen to be financed from that item.
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