On Thursday, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă (photo) blamed the big taxpayers for the collection deficit in the state budget. “The deficit mainly belongs to the big taxpayers. I make a public appeal to the big taxpayers to pay their debts to the state and at the same time I give a task to the institutions to do in such a way as to ensure the collection of these revenues”, said Ciucă at the beginning of the Government meeting.
“We have taken the decision that at the level of the Government, surely a decision discussed in the Coalition, to identify those fiscal measures through which we can better consider the expenses, so as to ensure that at the end of the year we fall within the deficit limits.
All these measures came from the moment when, at the end of the first quarter, we found that there was a deficit in collection. The deficit mainly belongs to the big taxpayers. I make a public appeal to the big taxpayers to pay their debts to the state and at the same time I give a task to the institutions to do in such a way as to ensure the collection of these revenues.(..)
It is a problem of ours, of the Government, which we are solving, and we wanted, as a safety measure, through these measures that we will approve next week, after we have a decision in the Coalition, to make sure that we do not go beyond the target of deficit“, said the Romanian PM.
He explained that it is not a matter of austerity measures, but of austerity measures and a more efficient management of public money.
These measures will not affect the wage envelope, investments and will not introduce new taxes and fees. (..) We do not target measures that affect the purchasing power of citizens,” Ciucă also said.
In his turn, the Minister of Finance, Adrian Câciu, stated that the ordinance regarding the reduction of expenses will lead to “the creation of an additional fiscal space” and he wanted to specify that “there is no hole in the budget”. “There is no hole in the budget. It’s not a hole. It is a preventive action”, said Câciu. “It will be an ordinance of fiscal and budgetary measures. (…) There are elements that must help to create an additional fiscal space to be able to intervene for the economy. The most important thing is to see where we can make efficiencies and to come up with support measures on the fiscal space created. It is not about austerity, it is not about measures to reduce staff or wages. But, this year we will also have reforms in the PNRR that will eliminate inequities. We will present the measures on Monday or Tuesday”, the Minister of Finance stated.
However, government sources told Hotnews.ro that from the expenditure reduction plans submitted by the Ministries, savings of over 10 billion lei could be achieved from the reduction of the expenditure on goods and services. Other spending cuts, such as a freeze on state wages and hiring until the end of this year, would be regulated by an executive order next week.