The government has again postponed a
\nmeeting to approve the 2019 budget bill, a meeting initially scheduled to take
\nplace on Tuesday. Published on the website of the finance ministry, the bill
\nhas come under criticism from both the ruling parties and the opposition. The
\nleaders of the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the
\nAlliance of Liberals and Democrats met on Monday evening to discuss the matter,
\nin particular the local budgets, which have generated a lot of discontent among
\nloyal mayors. Having failed to reach an agreement, they will continue the talks
\nin the next few days. The bill has been criticised by the Social Democrats’
\nleader himself, Liviu Dragnea, who has asked the prime minister and the finance
\nminister to consider the possibility that some of the additional funds
\nallocated to the secret services be rechanneled towards more important areas,
\nsuch as healthcare. Liviu Dragnea:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I think a lot of these funds can be re-allocated to healthcare, for
\nexample. In my opinion, a programme to grant free vitamin D to all children in
\nRomania is also a matter of national security, or a programme for diabetes. The
\nprime minister and the finance minister have said they will look at the bill
\nagain. If the government don’t make this change, I will do it myself in
\nParliament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The president of the Democratic
\nUnion of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, says the current version
\nof the budget bill has serious problems, especially with regard to the local
\nadministration. He says he will announce whether he supports the bill after
\ntalks with the prime minister. Kelemen Hunor:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We cannot begin with a huge deficit when it comes to the local
\nauthorities. We have made some calculations in a few counties, and we have
\narrived at a deficit ranging from 60 million to 11.7 million. Expenses in areas like child protection,
\npersons with disabilities and non-clerical staff are much higher than what we
\nare left with at local level. There are many problems that need to be discussed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The budget bill has also been
\ncriticised by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union in
\nopposition, who says they will seek to amend it. The bill does not reflect
\nRomania’s development problems, said on Monday the deputy president of the
\nNational Liberal Party, Raluca Turcan:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The government should have adopted the budget bill for 2019 a long time
\nago, so as to be subject for public debate for at least ten days before
\ndebating it in Parliament. We cannot tolerate that the extremely serious work
\nthe National Liberal Party has put in to amend the budget through concrete
\nproposals to be wasted because the current government simply does not respect
\nthe law that regulates the drafting, presentation and debating of the state
\nbudget.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The current version of the bill is based
\non a 5.5% economic growth rate, a 2.8% inflation rate and a deficit level of
\n2.5% of the GDP.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is increasing criticism concerning this year’s proposed budget, while the government itself is yet to approve the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29643,30079,29036,29080,38817,29346,33035],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-80577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-budget-bill","tag-budget-deficit","tag-kelemen-hunor","tag-liviu-dragnea","tag-raluca-turcan","tag-social-democratic-party","tag-viorica-dancila"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n