Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos declared on Tuesday his dissatisfaction that the Parliament votes on various social benefits without a minimal calculation of the budget impact.
The Prime Minister announced that the last parliamentary decisions costs 9 billion lei from the budget and this impact on the budget may either increase the deficit or reduce investments.
The day before, Minister Dragos Pislaru said that the one who will build the 2017 budget will have an impossible mission: „A Nobel for who will meet the deficit„.
„From what the Minister of Finance said, from all that has been voted in the recent months in preparation for the campaign, as unfortunately we are accustomed for the Parliament to vote before the election all kind of salary increases without consistent budget calculations, there are around 9 billion lei put together, so more than one percent of GDP shared between different destinations. (…) It is a budgetary impact that means either the increase of the deficit – which would be catastrophic for Romania – or, if we want to maintain the deficit limit (…) that means reducing the investments.”, said Dacian Ciolos for Adevarul Live.
The Prime Minister also explained that the percentage increase of salaries for certain categories does nothing but exacerbates inequities in the system and leaves without funding the law on the unitary payment for the public sector.
„We still have people who have the same training, same years of service, work in the same institutions or in parallel institutions, with the same responsibilities, but have different salaries. Percentage increases do not solve these dysfunctions, but we want to correct them through a law on a coherent unitary wage. Following these decisions, a law on budgetary wage will not have funding anymore simply because the money is split again to share a bit to each, „said Dacian Ciolos.
Dragoş Pislaru: „A time with an electoral stake when we play with people’s expectations.”
Prime Minister’s position was anticipated on Monday evening by the Minister of Labour, Dragos Pislaru.
After the deputies from the Commissions for budget and work decided to amend the Emergency Ordinance no 20, with the aim to increase salaries for certain categories of staff, Dragos Pislaru said that it is a sad moment for Romania, with electoral stakes and the result is „something unsustainable”.
„We are in a moment which I might not have the political experience to interpret… It is a sad moment for Romania, a time with electoral stakes when we allow ourselves to play with people’s expectations and beliefs. It is about hundreds of thousands of people who watch and expect to have a more decent life, „said Pislaru.
He reiterated that the amendments adopted in the commissions have a budgetary impact of 3-4 billion lei.
„Basically, we are talking about a sum of goals put on table (…) This is an increase of an increase of an increase. Union leaders have fought with lawmakers on who will give more and we discuss now of something unsustainable. We could not adopt the pay scales because it is not known what version of the pay scale we propose„, said the Minister of Labour.
List of electoral allocations unanimously accepted by the Parliament
Shortly after appointing the Cioloş government, especially after the start of the last session of the current parliamentary term, senators and deputies began to approve a series of projects aimed at salary increases, bonuses and special pensions for voters. Below, a short list of decisions that adjacent to the measures decided last year during the Ponta government and applicable in 2016 put pressure on the budget:
- Special pensions for MPs approved last year with effect from 1 August
- Special pensions for journalists
- Elimination of the income tax on pensions
- 15% bonus of the basic salary for the holders of a doctoral title
- Removing the threshold on parental allowances
- Special pensions for CCR judges
- Dragnea Law for eliminating 102 taxes
- Increasing the value of meal vouchers
Still in debate on the Parliament’s list:
- 25% salary increases for TESA staff from the healthcare system
- 15% salary increases in the education sector
- Salary increase for CNAS employees
