September
The Government presents the Budget Bill to the Riksdag.
On 20 September at the latest the Government presents its Budget Bill to the Riksdag. In election years the Budget Bill may be submitted slightly later.
The Budget Bill contains proposals on expenditure ceilings for the next fiscal year. In addition, it contains proposals for the allocation of central government resources to the 27 different expenditure areas and the total of more than 500 appropriations within these areas during the next year.
The Government also gives a breakdown of expenditure and activities in 47 different policy areas.
The policy areas are subdivisions of the expenditure areas which are used to allow a closer linkage between objectives, costs and results the idea being to make it easier to see where the money goes.
The proposed budget is now complete and the Government is not allowed to introduce any further bills during the autumn that would raise or lower the level of expenditures or revenues.
Generally speaking, the Budget Bill also contains a supplementary budget with proposed changes in appropriations for the current year.
Expenditure ceiling
The expenditure ceiling is a maximum level for central government expenditure, i.e. a limit on the amount of money the Government is allowed to spend in the course of a year. The system with expenditure ceilings was introduced in 1996 and was used for the first time in the preparation of the budget for 1997. It is intended to improve control over the budget process. Expenditure ceilings are set for the next three years. The ceiling includes a margin for unforeseen expenditure, which is known as the budgeting margin.
