THE HAGUE, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Dutch employers don't support the government's plans to cut a further 6 billion euros in the budget for 2014, Bernard Wientjes, head of the employers association VNO-NCW told Dutch newspaper on Thursday.
The new round of spending cuts proposed by the government are needed to put its budget deficit to 3 percent, the limit prescribed under the European Union's financial discipline rules.
But Wientjes thinks this will damage the economy and evoke further cuts. He told the newspaper that the economic situation is dramatic and that he foresees a decade of stagnation.
He instead pleads for a sell off of the "silverware" to raise money. "We should do it completely differently. The government should make another plan and go to Brussels. They should sell ABN Amro, SNS Reaal banks, insurer ASR and the mortgage branch of ING. This will bring in many billions," he told the newspaper.
Wientjes also suggested selling off 30 per cent of the total government's share of Gasunie and the electricity network Tennet.
But according to the vice-prime minister Lodewijk Asscher, a sale will not help solving the budget problems, because "the Netherlands would not obtain a good price for the banks."
Asscher stressed that the planned budget cuts of 6 billion euros will be executed despite the criticism.
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