The budget discussion of the Ministry of LNV will be on the agenda of the House of Representatives next Tuesday and Wednesday. Exceptionally, this time it could actually be about the ministry's income and expenditure.
Rarely does the treatment actually deal with the accounting aspects of this budget, which is the smallest of all ministries. The annual budget discussion of LNV is usually the opportunity for agricultural spokespersons to examine the course of government policy on stage. The Party for the Animals even saves speaking time to be able to rant for an extra long time during the LNV budget against everything that, in their view, is not good for the agricultural sector in the Netherlands.
Different classification of cost items
This year, by way of exception, it could be about the income and expenditure of the ministry. Those expenditures are skyrocketing: they have doubled in 2 years. In 2019 the total amount is less than a billion euros, for 2021 more than 2 billion euros has been budgeted.
The distribution of cost items has also changed. In 2019, a distinction was made between the items 'competitive, sustainable, safe agro, fisheries and food chains' and 'nature and biodiversity'. Now there are the items 'agriculture and horticulture' and 'nature, fisheries and area-oriented work'. It can be guessed that expenditure on nature in particular has increased enormously, given the many hundreds of millions of euros that will be used annually to buy up livestock farms.
Tens of millions of euros have also been budgeted for making livestock farming more sustainable and it is obvious that millions will be needed for corona support, although this is not clear from the budget, which does not contain any unforeseen expenditure. A new item is 'knowledge and innovation', worth no less than €250 million. The expenditure on the 'device' or the costs of the ministry, just like the total budget, has doubled in 2 years from €100 million to €200 million.
Rapidly rising government debt
LTO speaks of 'million dollar waste' and reiterates the position that the €1,5 billion that has been set aside to buy up livestock farms in the coming years should be better spent. Of this staggering amount, €750 million should be used to reduce emissions from stables instead of buying them up. In that case, according to LTO, the money has been spent much more usefully. "Investing ourselves out of the crisis" is the motto of the national government, which also includes LTO. While the government saw monitoring the national debt as the number 1 priority for years before the corona crisis.
The millions are flying around your ears. Also consider the costs of compensation for mink farming. On the total of the national budget, this is 'peanuts'. The corona support to KLM alone is an even larger amount than the doubled LNV budget. There are no precise figures, but you don't have to be a mathematician to estimate that the national debt is rising rapidly due to the ongoing corona crisis. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality is participating.
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