Finance minister Wouter Bos (Labour) has dismissed calls by the Christian Democrat party – the senior partner in the coalition government – to use income the state makes from its shareholdings in the banks and insurers it has bailed to reduce the national debt.

On Monday, CDA parliamentary leader Pieter van Geel said such income, either from dividends or from selling shares, should be used to cut debt as a matter of principle.
It should not be used to close holes elsewhere in the government’s spending plans, he said.
But Bos said such a commitment could be ‘dangerous’. ‘You have to be very careful that you are not setting a precedent,’ the finance minister was reported as saying in today’s Financieele Dagblad.
The government has a stake in a number of financial institutions such as the ABN Amro and Fortis Nederland banks, which have been fully nationalised, and insurer Aegon which was given a capital injection by the state yesterday.
In the current coalition agreement, treasury income from state shareholdings is earmarked for extra spending.