The chairman of the commission for economy, budget and finance, Radu Marian, criticized the initiatives for being “irresponsible”. “If we hypothetically adopted their irresponsible amendments, the budget deficit for 2026 would triple, from 21 to 66 billion lei, and the public debt as a percentage of GDP would rise to almost 60% in just one year. This would mean the bankruptcy of the country, the impossibility to pay pensions and salaries and the destruction of the economy,” Marian said.
The PAS deputy made this statement against the background of a briefing by the PSRM opposition faction, which announced a series of amendments in the social and health sectors. In particular, they proposed to establish a lump-sum aid to families in case of bereavement of a loved one in the amount of 5,000 lei, payments to schoolchildren – 3,000 lei, annual support to large families – 10,000 lei, to WWII veterans for Victory Day – 100,000 lei; 200 million lei annually for the program of prevention and treatment of drug addicts, etc.
It is worth mentioning that other factions, including PAS itself, put forward a number of amendments that increase the budget. For example, Veronica Rosca proposes to allocate additional funds to the Central Electoral Commission, Victoria Belous – for the construction of social housing in Rezina, Radu Marian – for salaries in civil aviation.
We shall remind you that the draft budget for next year was adopted by parliament in the first reading. The draft envisages revenues of 79.67 billion lei and expenditures of 100.57 billion lei. The deficit will amount to 20.9 billion lei, or 5.5 per cent of the GDP. The opposition refused to vote in favor of it. The date of voting in the final reading has not been set yet, but it is scheduled for one of the next parliamentary sittings.
