UPDATE 2021 state budget, state social insurance budget laws, promulgated

President Klaus Iohannis promulgated on Monday the state budget law for 2021, the Presidential Administration announced. The head of state also promulgated the law on the state social insurance budget for this year. According to the Presidential Administration, the 2021 budget will allow Romania to develop in key-sectors, which have often been "ignored" in the past. "Investment, reform and economic growth are the pillars on which the 2021 budget is built, so that the principles of fiscal responsibility and the sustainability of public finance are respected at the same time. The budget deficit target of 7.16% of GDP indicates a considerable effort of budgetary consolidation, which does not burden the citizen with new charges and taxes, thus creating the premises for a balanced and sustainable economic and social growth. (...) Significant amounts are allocated to investments in transport infrastructure, hospitals and schools, but also to continue efforts to manage the vaccination campaign, as well as the risks associated with the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Major investments ensure the support of the new business environment development opportunities and the creation of better paid jobs," the quoted source shows. Increasing the share of GDP in revenues from European funds is equivalent, according to the Presidential Administration, to a "firm commitment of the Government to fully benefit from investments in European funds and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan." "At the same time, the objective of streamlining the spending of public money cannot be achieved, in the medium term, without a comprehensive reform of the fiscal-budgetary framework and of the fiscal administration system. Only through genuine reforms that generate transparency and efficiency in the administrative system, will the revenues to the state budget register sustainable increases, which Romania needs in the coming years," the Presidential Administration also says. Last week, Parliament adopted the state budget law and the state social insurance budget law in the form of the Government, and no amendments were accepted. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi; editor: Adina Panaitescu)