AgriMin Daea on budget revision: I expect more money for investments

Agriculture Minister Petre Daea expects to receive more money for investments at the budget revision which is announced for the end of July, showing that, at the National Land Improvement Agency (ANIF), there are investments which have been made even a year earlier and the constructors must be paid. "Adjustments are made all the time and it's natural for revisions to be made in the budget execution, because the forecast is one thing and the achievement is another thing. I expect more money for the investments and I discussed this thing because in the Agriculture Ministry, at the ANIF, all the investment works are advanced, some of them by a year earlier, which is why I have to bring money to honor those who carried out these works for constructors. Otherwise, I drafted a good budget and we will have a good execution," Petre Daea responded, when asked if he would ask money at the revision. Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has announced that the budget revision draft will reach the Government on 31 July. "Today [Wednesday, 10 July], at the Finance, we are concluding the talks with the ministries. On Thursday, there will be a discussion with Mrs Prime Minister in order to present the first results and, on 31 July, we will have the budget revision draft in the Government. But, as a matter of principle, it is clear, just as I said, that everything meaning the duties related to the Romanians' incomes, wages and pensions will be ensured. In terms of the bill related to investments, too, and the difference will be shifted among ministries according to these two priorities. There have been talks about the decrease of expenditure. It is the right approach, the common sense approach that any dignitary, especially the Finance Minister, must demand that the public money be properly spent on actions which bring growth in the economy, not on activities which cannot be justified," Teodorovici explained. When asked if he has in mind an increase of the deficit target, the Finance Minister has replied that this topic hasn't been discussed and the assumed deficit of 2.76 percent still stands. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mariana Nica, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)