Defense of country - main priority

The amendments to the Law on financing national defense will secure an additional two billion dinars for the Yugoslav Army from August until the end of the year.

Yugoslav Deputy Premier Jovan Zebic presented the proposed amendments to both chambers.

The federal budget for this year is 22,522 million dinars, including 16,382 million for the Yugoslav Army, Zebic said. A special federal Law on additional financing earmarked another 3.2 billion dinars for the Yugoslav Army, to cover part of the emergency expenditures resulting from the 1999 NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, he said.

This brings the sum earmarked for the Yugoslav Army this year to a total of 19.5 billion dinars, Zebic said.