Cabinet remains united behind budget cuts

A cabinet debate October 23 on the 2003 state budget draft did not produce basic opposition to the deficit target and cuts in state spending the new Dzurinda cabinet has proposed, government officials said.However, Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš has been forced to revise funding for the two state rail firms upwards by almost Sk3 billion after making an error in calculations. The minister noted that even at the higher support sum, altogether about Sk7 billion, the rail firms still faced a “difficult accounting job” in surviving the coming year.