VIENNA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Austrian federal budget for 2017 has been given approval in parliament on Thursday evening, with a higher deficit than initially anticipated.
The Kurier newspaper reported that only the two parties to the coalition government voted on the budget, following three days of deliberations in parliament.
A further 540 million euros (572 million U.S. dollars) have now been added compared to initial estimates, bringing the total to 77.63 billion euros.
This is partly due to the newly-agreed upon tax distribution scheme that is to see the federal government give state governments an additional 300 million euros of tax income each year, as well as an extra one-off payment to help tackle the asylum crisis.
A number of further smaller sums were also added to the budget. (1 euro = 1.06 U.S. dollars)
