10 Other Facts From The Budget

The main news from the Budget was yesterday repeated endlessly by the different media. Many notable plans and facts from the budget of the government however did not reach the media. Big chance that you did not know the following ten facts. 1. Windfall by telecom auction? This year the auction of 4G frequencies brought a windfall for the Treasury of up to 3.8 billion euro. Next year the so-called 2GHz frequencies, which expire in 2016, will be auctioned again. The previous auction in 1998 yielded 1.84 billion. Looks promising! 2. Largest costs The largest costs of the State in 2014 will be the social security with an amount of 78.7 billion euro. The costs for care are slightly less then 77.8 billion euro. The 'cheapest' department is the Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations, with a budget of 600 million euro. In comparison with other European countries, the Dutch increase in spending on health care and social security is considerable. 3. Show and take initiative If people in their own neighborhood or city have an initiative, the government will support that as much as possible. Unnecessary regulations should therefore not be an obstacle. 4. Spying The AIVD has four priorities for next year: - unstable regions at the external borders of Europe; - preventing (the spread of) weapons of mass destruction ; - youth joining the armed jihad abroad; - cyber terrorism and economic espionage; 5 . Juvenile criminal law The strict boundary between juvenile and adult criminal law lapses. This is a consequence of the new Adolescents Criminal Law, which takes effect in 2014. Young people from 15 to 23 years old can then be tried as a minor or as an adult. The choice depends, among other things, on how they are developing. Some young people are responding better to a tough approach while for others counseling might be the best approach. 6. Women on top Starting in 2014, the Central Government shall annually hire 100 trainees and will offer 4000 internships. In 2017, at least 30 percent of senior positions must be occupied by women. 7. No post on Monday From January 1, 2014 PostNL will not deliver post anymore on Mondays. Only funeral cards and medical post will be delivered 6 days a week. Because many people e-mail, there is less and less post. 8. No clear address? Then no benefits or refunds. The BIR will not pay benefits or tax refunds to people who can not clearly state their address. If there is doubt about the address, payouts can be stopped. Before the summer, State Secretary Frans Weekers of Finance was in the House to explain how it was possible that Bulgarian gangs were eligible for Dutch rental and care benefits. This new measure is intended to prevent such fraud in the future. 9. Purchasing power On average, the purchasing power wil be 0.25 percent next year. We knew this already since Sunday, but the authors of the Annual Budget also came up with another fact. In 2014 about 43 percent of all households in the Netherlands is going to gain purchase power, while the other 57 percent will loose purchase power! 10. Spaghetti of railway tracks The government has allocated 270 million euro to improve traffic flow up and around Utrecht Central Station. The intention is to disentangle the ‘spaghetti’ of railway tracks of the busiest station in the Netherlands. This must lead to more trains that will run between Amsterdam and Eindhoven and between Schiphol and Nijmegen.