The Flemish government reached an agreement on the 2018 budget in the early hours of Sunday morning. The Minister-President Geert Bourgeois will give the Flemish Parliament a preview of the content during his annual September statement on Monday.
The agreement is expected to include an alternative to the energy tax, which is better known as the Turteltaks. This tax of 100 euros per year, created to cover the cost of green certificates, was scrapped by the Constitutional Court.
Just before the summer, Flemish Minister Bart Tommelein (Open Vld) said that he could come up with a solution that would cost the average family barely 10 euros. The coalition partners CD&V and N-VA have been critical of this proposal.
Everyone will have to wait until Monday, when President-Minister Bourgeois reads his September declaration to the Flemish Parliament, to find out what the agreement contains. “Structurally balancing” the budget shouldn’t be a problem. Last week, he said he still needed to find 250 - 300 million euros out of a total budget of 40 billion euros.
(Source: Belga)
