Economic and social measures

The first measures in the "Support for Romania" Program, announced on Monday by the leaders of the ruling coalition made up of the PNL (National Liberal Party)-PSD (Social Democratic Party)-UDMR (Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania) have been adopted by the Romanian Parliament. One of the draft laws is aimed at increasing the minimum gross salary to 3,000 lei (600 Euros) in agriculture and the food industry. In these domains, the allowances and facilities are assimilated to the already-existing-ones in the constructions field, and employees will be exempted, until 2028, from the payment of income taxes and of the health insurance contribution.

Under the second bill adopted by Parliament, the food allowance for hospital patients and for institutionalized elderly people is doubled to 22 lei (a little over 4 Euros). The application of the "Support for Romania" package of measures for the protection of the citizens and the economy is a priority for the Government, the Liberal Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă wrote in a social media post. He pointed out that the state aid scheme for stimulating investments, with a major impact on the economy, met the very high expectations of the business environment.

According to the PM, the benefits will also be significant for the sectors which will receive financing, such as: manufacturing industry, constructions, hospitality industry, information technology and communications, health and social assistance. Nicolae Ciucă announced that the value of the package stands at 17.3 billion lei (about 3.5 billion Euros), of which about half are European funds.

The current coalition must come up with solutions to the problems of citizens and the economy, Nicolae Ciucă added: “The package has three main objectives: supporting the economy for a healthy economic growth, achieving social cohesion and, of course, solidarity between generations.”

300 million Euros from the package will be used to compensate for the prices increases. The SMEs will receive up to 400,000 Euros per company to stimulate investment, and transport companies will be disbursed a small part of one liter of fuel. Furthermore, farmers will receive money in the form of grants.

In turn, the PSD leader, Marcel Ciolacu, says that the current coalition has come up with these economic and social measures so as to keep inflation in check and pointed out that the current inflation rate of 10% is an influence from Europe. According to him, the measures will respond to the citizens’ problems. Another voice from the coalition, the former Liberal leader, Florin Cîţu, expressed his dissatisfaction that the package does not include certain measures which he has repeatedly promoted, including reducing the social insurance contribution by 5 % and postponing the payment of monthly instalments to banks. The opposition also criticizes the measures which they consider populist and claims that there are other forms of support too. Moreover, Save Romania Union - USR advocates a reduction in VAT for energy from 19% to 5%. (LS)