The revision was published after the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) reportedly decided to no longer block the budget rectification and gave finance minister Alexandru Nazare more time to present the “real” budget situation, sources told Antena 3 CNN. Thus, the PSD gave minister Nazare two more weeks to come up with the “real” budget execution for the first nine months of the year.
PSD claims unpaid bills, supposed to show up under the ESA methodology (accrual basis), have been inherited from the former government of prime minister Ilie Bolojan.
Technically, revenues are revised downwards by RON 4.7 billion and expenditures by RON 1.2 billion.
Higher-than-expected revenues are being generated by VAT (+RON 7.2 billion), income tax (+RON 2.0 billion), special taxes on the banking and energy sectors (+RON 1.7 billion) and profit tax (+RON 1.2 billion), among other sources. Excise duty revenues are lower by RON 3.65 billion, mainly due to the reduction in the diesel excise duty.
On the expenditure side, interest on public debt will cost more than planned (+RON 3.5 billion), while additional funding is needed for the state social security budget (+RON 3.47 billion), social assistance (+RON 0.72 billion) and personnel entitlements, for which no amount was specified.
The savings are expected to come from amounts budgeted for this year but unlikely to be used, including projects financed from non-reimbursable external funds with a low execution rate. These reduce the state budget allocation by RON 5.24 billion, of which RON 4.99 billion comes from the reserve established under the Ministry of Finance’s General Actions budget heading to ensure the continuation of project financing when European funds are temporarily unavailable.
Healthcare receives the largest net increase under the revision: the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (FNUASS) rises by RON 3.22 billion, while the Ministry of Health receives an additional RON 774 million for salary entitlements and operating expenses.
The amounts deducted from VAT revenues to finance local government expenditure are increased by a net RON 2.8 billion.
The ministry said the revision is prudent but covers all urgent expenditure
The revision covers certain and urgent obligations, the ministry explained, including medicines and medical services, pensions, salary entitlements, social assistance, interest payments and outstanding bills. These are financed from savings identified during budget execution, within the expenditure envelope and the deficit target.
No new expenditure is committed without an identified source of financing, the Ministry assured. Commitments already undertaken by the main credit authorising officers – including ongoing contracts, EU-funded projects and legally due payments – will be honoured.
Requests for additional budget allocations from main credit authorising officers, including ministries, local authorities and agencies, that are not urgent for this year and require joint analysis will be discussed in the coming period as part of the Ministry of Finance’s dialogue with each authorising officer.
Procedure
The draft emergency ordinance, explanatory memorandum and annexes were published on October 29 on the Ministry of Finance’s website, under the Decisional Transparency section, in accordance with Law No. 52/2003. The ministry has requested an opinion from the Fiscal Council.
The draft will also be discussed by the Social Dialogue Commission and consulted with the representative associations of local public administration authorities before being submitted to the government for approval.
Proposals and observations may be submitted to the Ministry of Finance as part of the decision-making transparency procedure.
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