Inatsisartut will hold the third and final reading of Greenland’s 2027 Finance Act on Monday, Nov. 16, with the amended proposal still projecting a deficit for the coming year.
A four-party agreement signed on Nov. 9 by Demokraatit, Inuit Ataqatigiit, Siumut and Atassut gives the bill a clear parliamentary majority. Naleraq is the only parliamentary party outside the deal.
The proposal heading into Monday’s vote would leave the treasury with a deficit of DKK 96.6 million (about $14 million) in 2027 on the DAU measure, which covers operations, investment and lending, according to the Finance and Tax Committee’s supplementary report of Nov. 13. Surpluses are projected for 2028, 2029 and 2030, producing a combined four-year DAU surplus of DKK 105 million.
On the narrower DA measure, which excludes lending, the 2027 deficit would be DKK 106.6 million (about $16 million), with a projected four-year surplus of DKK 65 million. That would meet the budget law’s requirement that the budget show no overall deficit across the four-year period on the DA measure.
The government’s original proposal had budgeted DAU deficits in both 2027, at approximately DKK 89 million, and 2028, at DKK 5 million. The amendments heading into Monday’s vote would leave a projected deficit only in the first year.
The agreement sets aside DKK 218.4 million (about $32 million) for full price-and-wage adjustment of municipal block grants from 2027 through 2030. It also adds DKK 4 million annually for foreign affairs over those four years, totaling DKK 16 million.
The package adds DKK 102.8 million in spending in 2027. To help finance its priorities, the parties have agreed to double the cruise passenger duty from DKK 50 to DKK 100 starting Jan. 1, 2028. They have also agreed to raise resource-rent rates on mackerel, herring, blue whiting and capelin from 2027, with the fisheries changes expected to generate approximately DKK 120 million in additional revenue over four years.
The committee, citing Greenland’s Economic Council, cautions that relying on surpluses in later years carries a risk that the projected balance will not materialize.
Naleraq, in a minority statement, said the coalition “has still not managed to present a Finance Act in balance for 2027,” according to our translation from Danish.
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Photo: Nuuk below Sermitsiaq. Oliver Schauf / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
