AKK: 2025 budget insufficient for municipalities

Insufficient, it is calling the planned budget for 2025, the Kosovo Communist Association. The executive director, Saban Ibrahimi, said that with the planned budget, Kosovo municipalities will face a reduction of funds from the state budget.

“According to association analysis, municipalities will have been missing means in relation to last year. With the budget planned for 2025, municipalities will receive 21.8% of the total budget. During 2024, however, some 22.4% benefited. Add to this the problem with collective contracts where municipalities have unjustly received over 60m euros”, he told RTK.

In addition, the problem in this situation, according to him, is the disapproval of Grant IV for capital investments, as well as the fact that over 60m euros have been removed from municipal budgets so far this year for the implementation of collective contracts. He adds that in budgetary divisions, the government has made differences in municipalities.

However, the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Buzhet, Armend Muja, does not agree with Ibrahim. He says the budget shared for municipalities has marked increases in recent years.

“For municipalities for 2025 are earmarked at 788m euros. Compared to the time when we weren't in power, 544m euros have been sealed. Since the time we arrived, there has been an increase in the budget worth 247m euros for municipalities. Apart from regular Grant, it is also within the budget for infrastructure around 50m euros, co-financed with municipalities for capital projects. So besides this budget there is another budget that has been sealed down to the municipalities”, Muja stressed.