Positive national budget revision; cuts in education, European funds, research outlays

The Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) has put forth a positive budget revision that secures compliance with the 2.76pct deficit, with the largest cuts according to the bill to be conducted in the appropriations for the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of European Funds and the Ministry of Research. MFP says the necessary amounts are secured for ongoing investment projects, while the amounts allocated to the organisations with a low level of use of the allocated money would be reduced. Thus, the Ministry of National Education would lose 1.03 billion lei, the Ministry of European Funds 681.9 million lei, and the Ministry of Research 369.1 million lei. Also, the budget of the Ministry of Transport will be reduced by 128.8 million lei, that of the Ministry for Business, Trade and Entrepreneurship by 243 million lei, that of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development by 310.4 million lei and that of the General Secretariat of the Government by 143.6 million lei. "For the organisations which appropriations have been diminished, commitments have not been proportionally diminished, so that the contracting process of the projects financed by European funds, as well as ongoing investment works will not be affected; the decrease regards only cash appropriations," MFP says in a press statement. On the other hand, the local administration budgets increase by 4.4 billion lei as follows: 2.9 billion lei for balancing, 1.5 billion lei of which will be provided in a lump sum and the difference will be allocated later under a government decision, and 1.5 billion lei for the National Local Development Plan. The ceiling for loans/draws for territorial administrative units increased by 400 million lei. Caps on loans granted from the general account of the State Treasury for the financing of the investment projects under the Development and Investment Fund are set at 10 billion lei. MFP says the Gross Domestic Product increased to 1,031 billion lei, from 1,022.5 billion lei as estimated at the time this year's budget was developed, and that the revision bill provides the necessary amounts for the payment of public pensions and wages. At the same time, 135 million lei are provided for the completion of the process of refunding the special tax on motor vehicles, the pollution tax on vehicles, the tax on polluting emissions from vehicles and the environmental stamp on vehicles, representing the interest. As much as 500 million lei would be earmarked to clean after this year's natural disasters. AGERPRES (RO - author: Nicoleta Gherasi, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Rodica State)