Draft budget goes through final stages of debate

The draft budget is going through the final stages of debate before the government approves it at a meeting on Saturday.

A meeting of the National Tripartite Committee was held on Thursday, during which social partners received assurances from the prime minister that taxes will not be raised this year, the budget deficit will be limited to 7% of gross domestic product and inflation to 3.8%.

For his part, the Minister of Finance spoke of a balanced and realistic budget, with a sustained pace of investment.

Investments and protection of Romanians' purchasing power are the main coordinates of this year's budget - Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told representatives of employers and trade unions, saying that it will be a prudent budget, which envisages an estimated economic growth of 2.5%, based on investments, agriculture, construction, services and industrial growth.

The average wage is also expected to rise by 6.1%, while some forms of support for pensioners and energy bills for those on low incomes will be maintained.

They also discussed the effects of the implementation of the "little train ordinance". National Trade Union Bloc president Dumitru Costin said changes are needed, otherwise there will be many court cases.

Dumitru Costin: I have informed the Prime Minister that we are prepared if the People's Advocate does not follow up and the Government does not follow up the proposal we made. We have the option of opening lawsuits, thousands of collective and individual lawsuits for any employee represented by the National Trade Union Bloc, whose rights are affected by the abusive application of these provisions.

During the discussions, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that the law approving this normative act is to be analyzed and adopted in Parliament and will include some legislative solutions resulting from the consultations that the executive has had with the social partners.

Translated by: Radu Matei