Talks on the budget bill for 2018
The budget bill for 2018 will be approved by early December, announced the Social Democrats leader and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea.
Mihai Pelin, 31.10.2017, 13:30
The governing coalition in Bucharest has met to discuss the country’s budget for 2018. The budget bill for 2018 will be submitted for Parliament’s debate in November and is to be passed most likely in early December, said Liviu Dragnea.
He added that the bill would observe the budget deficit target and the budget rectification would be a positive one: “The good news is that the budget is going to observe the deficit target of less than 3% for 2018. We also tackled the issue of a positive rectification for 2017. And the budget deficit for 2017 is also going to be under 3%. We also talked about the transfer from employers to employees of the obligation to pay social security contributions and about the split VAT. We sent the amendments to the Senate to be adopted by the experts’ committees.”
The Social Democrat leader added that the completion of the budget bill for 2018 also depended on the approval of the country’s Supreme Defense Council. In turn, the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, believes that it’s necessary to maintain the same level of budget expenses. He also spoke about the need to reduce material expenses, in the sense of stopping the tendency of bureaucratic organizations to oversize their material needs. Călin Popescu Tăriceanu thinks the money should be allotted for investments in various fields.
In another development, he also gave assurances that the salaries of public sector employees would not be diminished: “Nobody will lose their jobs, there was no talk about such an issue, but I think it is necessary to put a cap on material expenses, because we also need money for investments. One of the priorities that we discussed in principle for next year’s budget will be the allotment of substantial funds for the fulfillment of investment projects in various domains, not only in infrastructure. We need investments in the healthcare and education sectors as well as in other sectors, that should lead to the improvement of citizens’ quality of life.”
The government coalition leaders have analyzed a first strategy for the big infrastructure projects, and they are going to hold technical meetings with the representatives of the World Bank and the European Investment Bank. The public-private partnership project is going to be passed by an emergency ordinance in the coming days.
