The Chisinau Municipal Council on December 29 approved the municipal budget for 2021 in two readings right away. The draft budget was voted by the councilors of the PSRM, the Shor Party, the PDM and PUN. The councilors of the PPPDA, the PAS and the PL left the meeting hall in protest. The document wasn’t debated and no amendments were proposed, IPN reports.

Mayor General Ion Ceban assured that even more important projects for the development of Chisinau will be implemented next year. Among these are the drafting of the General Urban Design Plan, implementation of e-ticketing in municipal transport, setting up of parking places, repair of roads and sidewalks and rehabilitation of parks and squares. An important aspect of the municipal budget for next year is the allocation of financial resources for rehabilitating the yards of apartment buildings and supporting of development projects in the localities that form part of the municipality of Chisinau.

The PAS councilors said the proposed budget is not aimed at solving the real problems of the city and asked that the document should be reviewed so as to increase the costs for health, public transport, road building, capital investment in education and laying out of yards. Mayor General Ion Ceban promised the budget will be consulted broadly, but this wasn’t done and the draft budget didn’t go through all the public consultation stages and wasn’t endorsed by the expert commission.

PPPDA councilor Aliona Doroș noted that the budget deficit is higher than the deficit proposed initially. The proposals formulated by their group weren’t accepted and weren’t included in the document.

PL councilor Ion Cebanu reiterated that the deficit is higher than initially planned and the proposed taxes would kill the small and medium-sized businesses.

The municipal budget of Chisinau for 2021 provides for revenues of 4.74 billion lei, including 2.64 billion lei transfers from the state budget, and for an expenditure of 6.28 billion lei. The deficit is of 1.53 billion lei.