According to the information published on the Government’s website, the measures that have fiscal implications (overlapping in two years) are a total of 329 million euros. The measures that have no fiscal implications (have no effect on the Budget) are a total of 375 million euros. Of the measures without fiscal implications, most of them refer to the deferral of loans to companies and households in the amount of 281 million euros, while 94 million euros are loans from the Development Bank, said GordanaDimitrieskaKochoska, member of the Executive Committee of VMRO-DPMNE and former Interim Assistant Minister of Finance.
According to her, summed up like this, the total effects of the measures are 6.5% of GDP, but it is not money spent from the budget, and is not funds allocated for aid packages in the coronary crisis, nor is it a fiscal stimulus, as the Government claims.
“Moreover, the loan deferral was not done with a moratorium, as many countries did and as we as the opposition demanded, but it was left to the banks to calculate the interest for the deferral period on their own initiative,” DimitrieskaKochoska added.
She points out that in the period from April to September 2020, the total calculated interest for individuals is 34 million euros, money that will have to be paid by citizens. At the same time, this measure was terminated in March 2021 for individuals, and for legal entities the last opportunity for banks to restructure with easier conditions was in September 2020. The deferral of loans was favorable for the banks’ balance sheets, as well as for the companies and the population.
