PRIME Minister Robert Fico already knows where to get his hands on the Sk16-18 billion that is lacking in the state budget to pay for the cabinet’s priorities for next year. The Slovak gas utility SPP should pay the government’s bill in the form of special dividends, he said.
Another senior member of the ruling coalition, Ján Slota of the Slovak National Party, indirectly confirmed the plan when he said that there was a possibility to gain money from the state's stakes in companies, especially SPP, the Hospodárske noviny daily wrote.
The plan to squeeze money from SPP was originally proposed one year ago by former Economy Minister Pavol Rusko. SPP’s assets were to be re-evaluated in an unbundling process, by which SPP was to be divided into distribution and transit companies. The company’s assets were to remain in another independent firm, SPP Aktíva, which was to have created room for the payment of special dividends of around Sk33 billion. The state was to have gained approximately Sk17 billion from the dividends.
6. Oct 2006 at 12:01
