Controversies on the new budget bill

There is increasing criticism concerning this year's proposed budget, while the government itself is yet to approve the bill.

România Internațional, 05.02.2019, 12:56

The government has again postponed a
meeting to approve the 2019 budget bill, a meeting initially scheduled to take
place on Tuesday. Published on the website of the finance ministry, the bill
has come under criticism from both the ruling parties and the opposition. The
leaders of the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats met on Monday evening to discuss the matter,
in particular the local budgets, which have generated a lot of discontent among
loyal mayors. Having failed to reach an agreement, they will continue the talks
in the next few days. The bill has been criticised by the Social Democrats’
leader himself, Liviu Dragnea, who has asked the prime minister and the finance
minister to consider the possibility that some of the additional funds
allocated to the secret services be rechanneled towards more important areas,
such as healthcare. Liviu Dragnea:

I think a lot of these funds can be re-allocated to healthcare, for
example. In my opinion, a programme to grant free vitamin D to all children in
Romania is also a matter of national security, or a programme for diabetes. The
prime minister and the finance minister have said they will look at the bill
again. If the government don’t make this change, I will do it myself in
Parliament.

The president of the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, says the current version
of the budget bill has serious problems, especially with regard to the local
administration. He says he will announce whether he supports the bill after
talks with the prime minister. Kelemen Hunor:

We cannot begin with a huge deficit when it comes to the local
authorities. We have made some calculations in a few counties, and we have
arrived at a deficit ranging from 60 million to 11.7 million. Expenses in areas like child protection,
persons with disabilities and non-clerical staff are much higher than what we
are left with at local level. There are many problems that need to be discussed.

The budget bill has also been
criticised by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union in
opposition, who says they will seek to amend it. The bill does not reflect
Romania’s development problems, said on Monday the deputy president of the
National Liberal Party, Raluca Turcan:

The government should have adopted the budget bill for 2019 a long time
ago, so as to be subject for public debate for at least ten days before
debating it in Parliament. We cannot tolerate that the extremely serious work
the National Liberal Party has put in to amend the budget through concrete
proposals to be wasted because the current government simply does not respect
the law that regulates the drafting, presentation and debating of the state
budget.

The current version of the bill is based
on a 5.5% economic growth rate, a 2.8% inflation rate and a deficit level of
2.5% of the GDP.