(Repeating story from Thursday)
* Finance minister sees 2011 fiscal gap at 4.9 pct/GDP
* 2012 seen at 3.9 pct/GDP, below 3 pct/GDP in 2013
* A hike in value-added tax still an option
(Change sourcing to Miklos, add quotes, details)
By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Slovakia plans to cut its
fiscal deficit to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)
next year, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos said on Thursday,
leaving open the option of raising value-added tax.
The euro zone's poorest member, seen emerging from the
crisis as one of the European Union's fastest growing economies
this year, pledged to cut the gap to below the EU's official
limit of 3 percent of GDP by end-2013.
The centre-right cabinet of Prime Minister Iveta Radicova,
in power since July, revised this year's deficit expectation to
7.8 percent, slightly down from an updated 8.0 percent gap
reported for 2009.
"We cannot label the current state of public finances other
than subverted," Miklos told reporter, blaming the previous
leftist government of Prime Minister Robert Fico for hiding
facts.
Miklos, a fiscal hawk charged with slimming the budget
deficit without harming an economic recovery, reiterated the
cabinet aimed to narrow the gap by 1.7 billion euro ($2.2
billion) next year.
"We want to have the fiscal deficit at 4.9 percent of GDP
next year, 3.9 percent in 2012 and below 3 percent in 2013, this
is the plan," Miklos said [].
The ruling coalition leaders will meet on Monday and are
expected to unveil a final draft of planned austerity measures.
AUSTERITY PACKAGE UNDERWAY
Radicova said on Tuesday her cabinet will cut state budget
expenditure by at least 900 million euros next year, equal to
2.5 percentage points of GDP. []
Political leaders declined to comment on whether they will
have to hike value-added tax, imposed on many goods and services
at 19 percent, in order to achieve their plan.
"Theoretically it is possible to achieve the goal --
consolidation -- without higher value-added tax, but only in
case of more significant changes to payroll taxes, but time is a
problem here," Miklos said.
Slovaks want to abolish exceptions to the value-added tax,
and possibly extend taxation to every kind of income. The
personal and corporate income tax of 19 percent, introduced in
2002 in the form of a flat tax system, will not be altered.
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
