The Dutch cabinet announced its vision for the Dutch budget in 2022.
The third Tuesday in September every year is the Dutch “Little Prince’s Day”, also known as “Budget Day”. On this day, the Dutch government’s budget and plans will be submitted to the Parliament.
On the same day, King William Alexander delivered a speech. This year he not only talked about the state of the country from his own perspective, but also criticized the cabinet involved in the scandal.
Subsequently, the cabinet ministers announced their plans for next year, and the parliament will also have heated debates on these plans.
By convention, some plans have been leaked to the media before the budget is officially announced.
People’s livelihood
In the next 10 years, the government will invest 100 million yuan every year to build 900,000 housing units. Therefore, a total of 1 billion euros will be used to promote the construction of more housing.
50 million euros will be used to resettle disadvantaged groups. This year, dozens of municipalities received a financial donation to provide more flexible and affordable housing for the homeless, migrant workers and other “emergency seekers.”
In fact, the overheating of the real estate market is not over yet. Due to the sharp rise in housing prices, fewer and fewer people can afford houses.
In August, the price of owner-occupied houses rose by 17.8% over the same period last year, and the rate of increase in house prices was even faster than in July. According to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), this is the largest increase since September 2000.
In the past six months, house prices have increased by double-digit percentages, setting a record high. Compared with the lowest house price in 2013, the current house price has risen by an average of 78%.
Covid-19
Approximately a quarter of budget expenditures (approximately US$93 billion) are spent on healthcare.
Next year, more than 2 billion U.S. dollars will be used to control the new crown epidemic, such as vaccination, testing methods, sources, and exposure research.
In addition, the cabinet has also considered other possible pandemics, so it has designated 22 million for “pandemic prevention” and will set up a special “pandemic center.”
Every year, the National Nursing Reserve Fund will allocate 5 million euros to equip nursing staff to deal with the crisis.
Childcare allowance incident
The government will reserve more funds to compensate victims of the childcare allowance incident and other expenses in handling the incident.
The documents show that it is now assumed that the total cost of handling this incident is approximately 5 billion euros. Part of the reason for the increased budget is that more people report that they are victims than expected.
Medical insurance premium
On “Little Prince’s Day”, people will learn whether and how much insurance costs have increased.
The government expects to receive an additional 2.75 euros per month next year (the premium will depend on the insurance company), and the increased amount will be absorbed by low-income groups, who will add 3 euros in medical subsidies per month.
Nursing allowance will also increase, but due to the requirements of the House of Representatives, the deductible is still 385 euros.
Through insurance premiums and taxes, we will spend an extra 100 euros per person next year on medical expenses.
Youth health and suicide prevention
It is reported that 1.3 billion euros will be used for youth health. With this money, the youth health care system must be reformed.
In addition, the government also hopes to stimulate internships in the field of health care. For this purpose, the government has allocated 63.5 million euros and also allocated 5.5 million euros to the 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation.
Law and crime
There will be an additional budget of more than 400 million euros to fight subversive crimes.
Funds are used to protect the safety of threatened persons, forensic testing, and to protect infrastructure and logistics processes from criminals.
In order to be able to have a special place to accommodate criminals after they are caught, more funds are also flowing to prisons and other judicial institutions.
The government has brought an economic boost to the social legal industry. The remuneration of social lawyers is rising.
Economic data
This year, one of the messages delivered by the Budget is that “in terms of the economy, the near-term prospects look very good.”
For example, the economic recovery after the new crown pneumonia crisis is even stronger than expected: it is expected to grow by 3.5% next year and 3.9% this year.
In addition, purchasing power remained the same on average, and the unemployment rate rose slightly (it will reach 3.5% next year).
climate change
Due to the long time for the formation of the cabinet, the caretaker cabinet has been working for 8 months. However, not all policies have been shelved until the new cabinet decides.
According to Urgenda’s judgment, the government will allocate 6.8 billion euros to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. These funds will provide companies with subsidies for sustainable energy (such as solar and wind power plants).
Ordinary people are also expected to become more sustainable economically. For example, there will be measures for electric cars, heat pumps and residential insulation.
In addition, from January 1st, the natural gas tax will be raised again slightly-2 Euro cents per cubic meter. Since the signing of the 2019 climate agreement, the energy tax on natural gas has increased by nearly 13 cents.
The government is not only paying attention to the Dutch climate plan, but also considering preparing 1.3 billion euros for “climate action in developing countries”.
False information
The government hopes that more people will pay attention to and fight against fake news on social media.
More and more unrest started on the Internet, or was intensified on the Internet. The cabinet will judge whether the corresponding measures adopted by the mayors and police are adequate to deal with these situations.
At the same time, the government will investigate the source of the riots and hope to talk to the “injured groups and key target groups”.
Defense department
The Ministry of Defense will receive an additional 95 million euros. The money is mainly used for training, caring for veterans and strengthening the military intelligence department MIVD.
All in all, the Ministry of Defense spends 12.5 billion euros each year, which is 1.47% of the budget. This is not enough to meet NATO’s 2% standard.
educate
At the beginning of this year, the government has announced that it will provide 8.5 billion euros at a time through the national education plan to eliminate the negative impact of the new crown epidemic on the education sector.
This move not only addresses many students’ delays in attending school, but also involves adverse social and emotional development.
In the next two and a half years, primary schools, secondary schools and special education institutions will receive a total of 5.8 billion euros in funding. Of this, about 2.7 billion are designated for MBO, HBO and WO.
work from home
Even after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, in order to facilitate people to work from home, the government will provide tax-free work-from-home subsidies-2 euros per working day.
Employers can pay employees for toilet paper, coffee and heating.
How much does the royal family spend?
The budget of the entire royal family has exceeded 10 million euros.
It is reported that the royal family’s expenditure is expected to increase from 45.7 million euros to 48.2 million euros in 2022. This is mainly due to the higher salaries of royal family members and the indexation of costs.
The salary and expenses of King William Alexander, Queen Maxima, Princess Beatrix, and Princess Emalia are the largest expenditure items.
In addition, government aircraft will reduce the number of flights, which will save 24,000 euros. On the other hand, the royal family members’ budget for ordinary flights has also increased, which is more than 40,000 euros more than last year.
Different from previous years
Due to the new crown epidemic, “Little Prince’s Day” for the second consecutive year looks very different from previous years. In the past, the royal family traveled to the Knights Hall of the Congress, and grand celebrations were also held in the Knights Hall. The king delivered a statement, cabinet members, Members of Congress and envoys from various countries will be invited to participate.
But this year, members of the royal family drove to the scene of the King’s speech at The Hague Cathedral. People were told not to go to The Hague on Tuesday to avoid any crowd gathering and the possible new crown epidemic caused by this move.
