Corona stimulus package: So far, only 35 billion euros of federal funds have been called up

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The good news first: The federal government will incur much less additional debt this year than initially feared.

For the first eleven months, the Ministry of Finance shows a deficit of 133.6 billion euros in its monthly report.

That is far from the almost 218 billion euros that Olaf Scholz (SPD) had the Bundestag approve in the summer as the maximum amount of new debt for 2020.

If you add the current month to this, it could end up with a comparatively low level of new debt in retrospect of around 150 billion euros.

This positive development from the taxpayer's point of view has been evident for some time.

Just as the end of the year approaches, a problem also emerges: the 130 billion euro economic and future program announced by Scholz in June with the high-profile expression “boom” is still largely a part of it more than six months later Promise.

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Of the expenditure of around 65 billion euros already planned for this year to support the troubled economy, 35 billion euros have been distributed so far.

This emerges from the response of the Federal Ministry of Finance to a written request from FDP member of the Bundestag Karsten Klein, which WELT has received.

The eight-page answer lists how many of the funds recorded in the key issues paper of the coalition committee of June 3 and decided in the second supplementary budget 2020 actually flowed by December 7.

100 million approved, 7,000 euros spent

For example, 2.3 billion euros are actually set this year for “bringing forward investments”; by December, six percent of this or 140 million euros had gone out.

Around ten percent of the 25 billion euros in bridging aid flowed out.

Of this, 45 million euros went to professional sports clubs instead of 200 million euros.

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The budget for this year provides 500 million euros for capacity expansion for kindergartens, daycare centers and crèches, of which just 30 million euros have flowed out.

For the improvement of mobile phone reception along the railways, 43 million euros were budgeted, while 133,000 euros have been spent to date.

The gap between plan and implementation in the investment promotion program for the barn conversion to promote animal welfare and environmental protection is even wider.

The program surprisingly made it into the key issues paper in the summer.

At that time, the financial requirements for 2020 and 2021 were estimated at 300 million euros, 100 million euros were to be built in this year.

Accessed so far: 7,000 euros.

This means that 99.993 percent of the funds were not used.

"The oomph, which has been widely announced by Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, has so far been a lot of hot air," says FDP MP Klein.

In times of crisis, the effectiveness of economic policy is measured by the speed, reliability and accuracy of measures.

Crisis management is psychology

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However, the majority of the measures taken by the federal government are disappointing in all three categories.

"With a cash outflow of around 53 percent, the package looks like window dressing," says Klein.

That could quickly cause frustration in the economy.

Scholz defends himself against the criticism that the lavish promises missed the need.

"Economic experts and international organizations praise the fact that we have secured employment with great fiscal power and prevented a downward spiral in the economy," he said in his ministry's monthly report.

The idea behind this is that crisis management is above all psychology.

The signal from the state that sufficient funds are available is intended to instill confidence among entrepreneurs and consumers.

Whether these funds are needed at all and, if so, when is therefore of secondary importance.

There is nothing to be read about anger at the fact that the billions in prospect have not yet reached the citizens as planned in the answer of the Federal Ministry of Finance to the question of the Bundestag member Klein.

It is only pointed out that, at least for the longer-term measures, only a small outflow of funds is currently to be expected.

Finally, the relevant measures also required preparation of the content.

Scholz wants to burden high salaries more heavily

Income tax rates have not changed for more than ten years.

Now Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz wants to burden incomes above 200,000 euros more heavily in the future.

But not only the SPD is working on a tax concept.

Source: WORLD / Laura Fritsch