19th February 2018, Skopje – By the end of the year, new revised Law on Budgets, by which the budgets will be projected in the medium run, thus creating conditions for introducing a Fiscal Council, was announced by Minister of Finance Dragan Tevdovski at the first meeting of the Public Financial Management Council, coordinative body in charge of monitoring the reforms envisaged under the Public Financial Management Reform Programme 2018-2021.
Law on Budgets sets the framework for public finance in the country. This Law governs the overall budget process, including the main stakeholders in the budget process, the procedure for Budget preparation and adoption, Budget execution and the Annual Budget Report, management of the budget allocation, and preparation of the Medium-Term Fiscal Strategy. New revised Law on Budgets will provide for making changes to the end of setting medium-term framework, under which the annual budgets will be projected, Tevdovski underlined.
As Minister of Finance pointed out, the new Law on Budgets will set requirements for establishing Fiscal Council, to the end of conducting sustainable fiscal policy, greater budget discipline and responsibility, increased credibility of the macroeconomic policy and fair and sustainable distribution of the expenditures among the present and future generations.
Public Financial Management Reform Programme 2018-2021 has been the first comprehensive strategy in the field of public finance management. Reforms therein should contribute to achieving 7 priorities: improving the fiscal framework by enhancing the projection, improving the revenue collection, at the same time simplifying and improving the services of the competent institutions, enhancing the planning and budgeting process, improving the budget execution, increasing the transparency, strengthening the internal control in the institutions, as well as the external control and the parliamentary oversight.
During the first meeting of the Public Financial Management Council, the annual Action Plan was considered, which in addition to the Minister of Finance, was attended by other members of the Council, among which the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European integration Bujar Osmani, Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Mancevski, as well as the Directors of both the Public Revenue Office and the Customs Administration Sanja Lukarevska and Goko Tanaskovski.