Vasile Tofan
“We need to make certain changes to the budget to cover, amongst other things, additional expenditure. We have made a number of commitments — first and foremost, to provide people with compensation during the cold season. Secondly, we have committed to making a one-off payment to teachers and other public sector employees, which will cost approximately 560 million lei. We will increase the road fund by approximately 300 million lei, as there is a shortfall there,” stated Vasile Tofan.
According to the Prime Minister, the state budget deficit will be increased by 2.17 billion lei.
“I will not sugar-coat the situation, because the budgetary situation looks difficult. We will increase the budget deficit to approximately 23 billion lei – around 5.95 per cent of GDP, which is less than 6 per cent. However, our aim as a government is clearly to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP, as this would be a sustainable level,” noted Tofan.
According to the draft approved by the government, which will be submitted to parliament for adoption, state budget revenue will increase by 600.5 million lei to reach 80.27 billion lei. Meanwhile, expenditure will rise by 2.77 billion lei to 103.35 billion lei.
Most of the additional expenditure will be directed towards social protection, regional development and the payment of wages. Transfers to the state social insurance budget will increase by 1.61 billion lei.
‘The main battle of the autumn’
The Prime Minister also noted that one of the government’s main tasks this autumn will be to draw up and adopt the state budget for 2027. According to him, the authorities must exercise the utmost rigour both in planning expenditure and in determining budget revenue.
“We must be very strict regarding the expenditure we approve for next year, and equally strict regarding revenue, in order to ensure a much more balanced budget next year and prevent a deficit of 5–6 per cent, as happened this year,” the Prime Minister stated.
Tofan also spoke about the state’s financial obligations to farmers. According to him, the debt in this sector amounts to almost 1.9 billion lei. Furthermore, the state owes money to contractors who carried out various infrastructure works in villages, and is also facing demands for pay rises.
“This will be a major challenge. We will have to exercise discipline to balance public finances. We cannot find ourselves in a situation where expenditure grows without restraint. Therefore, the main debate and the main battle this autumn will centre on the 2027 budget,” emphasised Vasile Tofan.
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