Cash injection for public media
In Monday's DGP we revealed that soon public media They will soon receive a large cash injection. We are talking about the exact amount of PLN 1.5 billion. A significant part of it – PLN 1.24 billion – is to go to Polish Television, the remaining amount – PLN 260 million – to Polish Radio and several regional stations. The money is to come from the special purpose reserve of the state budget. According to information, appropriate applications in this matter have already been submitted to the government. The money is to be paid by the end of March.
What is a specific reserve?
What mechanism is this? – General and specific reserves are mechanisms in public finances thanks to which the expenditure policy can be made somewhat more flexible. In short: the administration leaves some funds in the budget without any purpose (general reserve) or without a specific purpose (targeted reserve). This money can be used to implement public tasks during the budget year. While the general reserve is by definition related to extraordinary events, i.e. without the possibility of predicting, the specific reserve serves to specify the implementation of a goal that was most often envisaged, but at the planning stage it was impossible or difficult to specify it by planning expenses – he explains in an interview with DGP Dr. Tomasz Bojkowski, legal advisor and economist from the Department of Public Finance at the Poznań University of Economics.
He adds that both solutions should be considered good because they allow, in special situations, to spend funds without the need to amend the budget or make transfers within the budget.
– Reasons for creation specific reserves they do not constitute a closed catalog, which means that a separate act can introduce virtually any circumstance (within public tasks) justifying its creation. However, I would be very cautious about the possibility of co-financing capital companies from the special purpose reserve, which are not entities of the public finance sector. In capital companies, as a rule, the goal is to maximize profit, and in public finance sector units, it is to perform a public task – emphasizes Dr. Bojkowski.
In his opinion, “this fundamental difference is important in that granting funding to a capital company for the performance of a public task should be specific at the stage of budget creation, rather than its implementation by activating a special-purpose reserve.”
– Of course, without knowing the details of the solution to be used in this case, it is difficult to take a categorical position. However, it is important that proven and good public finance mechanisms are not used as part of a political dispute. From the point of view of the reserve mechanisms, there was no circumstance that could not be specified at the budget planning stage – concludes the PUEB expert.
