Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
The public finance minister, Ivan McKee, told Members of Parliament that the difference of £292m was equivalent to 0.6% of the budget and had not been lost.
He said it would be carried forward into spending for 2023/24. The Scottish Government has a legal obligation to balance its budget each financial year.
The minister said it had been a “significant challenge” to manage the Scottish Government’s financial situation.
He said: “The ongoing impact of persistently high inflation, pressure on public sector wages, backlogs as a result of the Covid pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine have combined to put pressure on public finances.
“Additionally, inflationary pressures continued to affect households and businesses across the country.”
Mr McKee said with the majority of the Scottish Government tied to UK Government decisions, it was “subject to a high level of uncertainty.”
“Although the Fiscal Framework was revised in August 2023, and it offers some additional flexibility, we are still unable to borrow to cover day-to-day costs.
“Our income tax powers do not allow changes to be made during the current financial year.
“The only real incentive we have to respond to emerging pressures and ensure we balance the budget is to reprioritize the current year’s spending plans.
“No one should underestimate the scale of that challenge – our spending is committed to supporting essential public services.”
He said “careful management and rigorous re-prioritisation” meant that taxpayers’ money was “channelled to where it is most needed.”
The minister said that he and his colleagues had continued to “proactively take efficiency savings and maximize income streams” while also agreeing salary agreements with public sector workers and junior doctors.
Earlier this year, Finance Secretary Shona Robison described Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget as a “betrayal” of public services in Scotland.
“This is a budget that is not balanced, and like the Autumn Budget, it is at the expense of investment in public services and especially on our capital budget,” he said.
“There is not a penny of extra money for capital in Scotland, that’s not extra money for affordable housing or health facilities.
“It’s not good for Scotland and I think the verdict of the people of Scotland will be that it’s a bad deal for Scotland.”
However, in his statement, Mr McKee told MLAs that £130m of the underspend was in the capital budget, a significant increase from the capital underspend of £24.7m the previous year.
The Scottish Conservatives’ shadow finance secretary, Liz Smith, said: “Ivan McKee did not disagree with the Fraser of Allander Foundation’s assessment that the UK block grant, excluding Covid spending, was higher than in previous years.
“Yet he still managed to complain about Westminster’s finances – even though the SNP’s capital underspend has quadrupled on last year’s figures.
“When it comes to spending taxpayers’ money, the Scottish government got completely confused about what EU money was available to spend and what had been handed back. The SNP should take immediate action to improve the transparency of public spending as Audit Scotland has requested.”
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24401061.scottish-government-underspent-budget-nearly-300m-last-year/?ref=rss
