Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan, in a speech delivered on October 3, some 100 days after his government took office, assured that the local administration reform had been agreed upon by the ruling coalition and said he hoped to see the second package of budgetary reforms cleared by the Constitutional Court on October 8. A third package of reforms will be drafted by the end of the month, the PM also promised.
The Romanian government took necessary, not austerity, measures in its first 100 days and will focus on better collecting revenues and reducing operating expenses in the next 100 days, the prime minister said.
“We need to complete the digitalisation of the fiscal management agency ANAF and the Customs Office, to firmly combat tax evasion, to ensure that transfer payments are not eroding the tax base, and to combat undeclared work,” PM Bolojan stated.
The Constitutional Court will rule on four of the five laws making up the second package of budgetary reform of the Ilie Bolojan government, with only one law cleared so far, and the key amendments on the magistrates’ pensions and retirement regime still on the table. A sixth law, on local administration, is still pending a final decision in the ruling coalition and is broadly seen as deferred for the third package of measures.
Regarding the local administration law that remained under negotiations among the ruling coalition’s parties, “it was agreed over,” Bolojan said.
“Next [this] week we will have a final decision. The sooner the other details related to the central administration are clarified, I think a third package can be sketched as soon as possible and adopted this month,” he said, answering the media.
Regarding the personnel downsize, what matters is staffing in line with the workload in order to have efficient institutions, Ilie Bolojan answered when asked about the planned 20% or 10% reduction of workplaces in the central administration.
No more tax hikes are envisaged next year, and the minimum income tax, maintained under the second package, will be revisited by the end of the year, PM Bolojan also promised. However, any further change in the taxation regime will come into effect as of 2027, not next year, he explained.
Besides the local administration law, the third package of measures also include the reform of the central public administration, the increasing the retirement age for other categories that can currently retire before the standard age of 65 and possibly a law to ban the employment in the budgetary sector of personnel previously retired (who would thus be paid both a public pension and a wage from the budget).
“The prohibition of combining pension and salary [from the state budget] is an important element. We are on the way to finding the constitutional formula to implement this project,” PM Bolojan said.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Gov.ro)
Leave a Reply