Child allowances to double

child allowances to double Constitutional Court of Romania rules child allowances are to double instead of increase gradually, as government proposes.

The government is obliged to double child allowances for around 4 million children following a ruling by the Constitutional Court which rejected as unfounded the government's argument against this move. The Court ruled that a law passed by Parliament to reject a gradual increase in child allowances as proposed by the government is constitutional. As a result, the initial law will remain in force, a law that was proposed by the Social Democratic Party in opposition in December last year and which provided for the doubling of child allowances from 150 lei to 300 lei, which is about 60 euros, and from 300 to 600 lei for children with disabilities. The measure was to be applied last January, but the government argued the state budget could not sustain it and adopted an emergency order to postpone it by August.


After hearing the Court's ruling, prime minister Ludovic Orban said doubling child allowances at this particular moment would lead to an increase in the budget deficit and that they should be doubled instead over five stages as proposed by the government. Ludovic Orban:


"Doubling child allowances requires additional budget funds of some 7 billion lei [around 1.44 billion euros], which would lead to an increase in the budget deficit of 0.6%. We've been in this situation before. The National Liberal Party will double child allowances, but will do so over five stages, with the final stage on 1st July 2022. Increasing child allowances is a priority for the National Liberal Party, but this increase must take into account the economic situation and the budget resources available."


Liberal senator Alina Gorghiu says the government will consider its options when the Constitutional Court publishes its justification. The leader of the Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu says, however, that there are enough budget funds to double child allowances, while his fellow party member and interim Senate speaker Robert Cazanciuc accused the government of incompetence. The president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu said the government is obliged to double child allowances and increase pensions by 40% and accused it of trying to prevent these measures from coming into effect.


The latest Constitutional Court ruling comes after Parliament this week moved to increase pensions by 40% instead of 14% as decided by the government. According to the government's estimates, the decision would cost the budget an additional 2 to 3 billion euros this year and 12 to 14 billion euros next year. Romania's public debt has already gone up considerably, rising by some 15.4 billion euros in the first seven months of the year alone.  (CM)



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Publicat: 2020-09-25 13:50:00
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