The Government approved the wage increase ordinance

Budgetary salaries will increase in two stages by the end of the year, and retirees will receive their money paid for health insurance back in more phases.

The government adopted these laws on Wednesday, which were, in fact, already announced since last week.

"Restoring the wages” and also the social contributions illegally returned from pensioners were the most important commitments of the new USL government, but also of the former cabinet, led by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu.

Both current and former governors have promised to increase the salaries of the budgetary people with 16 percent starting June 1, in order to resume the nominal wage before the reductions in 2010.

But after the discussions with the International Monetary Fund (FMI), the government decided to give for the moment half of the money, "the complete reunification" is supposed to be held in December.

According to the document adopted by the government, the gross basic salaries / balances of base paya , basic salary / employment benefits enjoyed by paid staff from public funds will increase in two stages, namely with eight percent starting June 1, 2012 to the level granted in May 2012 and with 7.4 percent from December 1, 2012 to the level granted in November 2012.

The restitution of pensioners’ money "will be automatically"

Labour Minister, Mariana Campeanu, said that, also Wednesday, the government ordered the return of those contributions to health insurance, wrongly perceived by the state.

"This will be for amounts withheld during January-March 2011, in equal monthly stages, in June-August 2010, for the amounts withheld during April 2011-April 2012. Refund shall be made ​​until December 31, 2013.

"This refund will be made automatically by pension coupons, they are not required to submit any application to the county retirement houses, should not go to court anymore, because the refund will be made automatically and the amounts will be shown on the pension coupons, "said the Minister of Labour.

Over 50 percent of money allocated to local elected by government Ungureanu was returned to the Ministry of Finance budget.

According to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, with this money will be funded expenses such as rewarding the athletes with outstanding results.

"Among the 648 million lei that Ungureanu government had given to the elected representatives of the former coalition, we can recover the amounts that were returned or amounts that were not loaded in the revenue account the amount of 387 million.

"So, somewhere, over 50 percent of the money, simply wasted on election criteria, has been recovered," explained the Prime-Minister.

The Prime-Minister has asked to his Control Corp to carry out two checks both at the Romanian Post and the State Domains Agency.

Victor Ponta argued that Romanian Post is in danger of being declared insolvent, as the former leadership has lost all processes and has to pay over 213 million lei to the Competition Council and ANAF.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University