The Ministry of Finance has issued a decision on temporary financing for January.
The decision, published on the Ministry’s website, applies from January 3.
As of December 31 last year, the Montenegrin Parliament did not adopt the state budget for this year.
According to the Law on the Budget and Fiscal Responsibility, if the state budget law is not passed by December 31 of the current year for the following year, the Ministry of Finance is required to approve monthly funds for consumer units, up to the amount of one-twelfth of the actual expenditures from the previous fiscal year, until the budget is adopted.
“In determining the expenditures allocated to consumer units, it is important to note that some consumer units, whose funding is a legal obligation, were established only in the second half of the previous year. Also, expenditures that represent legal obligations, such as mandatory expenditures (social benefits, pensions, salaries), as well as other mandatory expenditures, are determined based on an estimate of the actual amounts. It is worth noting that the actual calculation of these expenditures in December was already higher than one-twelfth of the total actual expenditures from the previous year,” the Ministry’s decision states.
Accordingly, in terms of determining one-twelfth of actual expenditures and their allocation, Article 37 of the Law on the Budget and Fiscal Responsibility is interpreted in such a way that one-twelfth of total actual expenditures is based on the total actual expenditures.
After determining one-twelfth of the total actual expenditures from the previous year, the funds are distributed by prioritizing mandatory costs, while the remaining amount, up to one-twelfth of the total actual expenditures, is allocated to consumer units based on the monthly consumption dynamics of the previous year.
The budget for this year is expected to be discussed on January 21 during an extraordinary parliamentary session.
