Prague, Aug 29 (CTK) – The sum allocated to non-profit organisations in the draft Czech state budget for 2019 has dropped by 586 million crowns compared to the original plan, Czech PM Andrej Babis (ANO) said today.
The cabinet is yet to debate their demands, he added.
However, the total sum for the non-profit organisations will still rise compared to 2018, Babis said.
The money allocated to non-profit organisations that are linked to the Education Ministry should drop more markedly, while that for the Labour Ministry should rise.
“It is an increase by about 800 million compared to 2018, so the individual sectors either see an increase or a drop,” he said.
He said he wanted to discuss the plans on increases of expenditures in more detail at the cabinet meeting next Tuesday.
In healthcare, the expenditures on the non-profit sector are to drop by 70 million crowns and in education, which includes NGOs supporting sport, by 448 million crowns.
The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry sees an increase by 98 million, the Government Office a decrease by 65 million. Naturally, we will debate this with the individual ministries, I am mainly interested in the increases, as it this is something to discuss further,” Babis said.
Early in August, non-profit organisations criticised Finance Minister Alena Schillerova (for ANO) for saying she would like to save 3 billion crowns of the 14 billion of annual subsidies for these organisations. After the criticism, Basis said the cabinet would proceed according to an analysis he ordered.
According to the annual cabinet’s analysis of funding, the biggest part of subsidies for non-profit organisations goes to support for sport. In 2016, this was more than one third of the total of 17,89 billion crowns. Approximately 30 percent of the amount was used on social affairs and employment.
Three fifths of the overall sum were provided by the state, more than one fifth by the municipalities and around 16 percent by the regions in 2016. The rest was provided by state funds and agencies. The municipalities are supporting sport markedly more than social affairs. While over two fifths of municipal and regional subsidy funds went to sport, about one fifth was spent on social affairs.
There were 122.000 registered foundations, societies, associations, churches, educational institutions and bodies. In 2016, the state supported projects of 6,941 organisations, that less than 6 percent of them.