Parliament adopted the 2016 draft state budget law in the first and second readings. The budget provides for incomes of 48.5 billion lei and a total expenditure of 52.7 billion lei, with a deficit of 4.2 billion lei. The draft budget was passed by the votes of 55 MPs, IPN reports.

The draft state budget law for this year envisions that the incomes will represent 36.3% of the GDP, an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared with the 2015 state budget. The rise of over 11% in incomes is due to the larger grants intended as budget support. The incomes from duties and taxes represent over 60% of all the revenues.

The budget expenditure increased by 17.1% on 2015. The programs financed with money from the state budget account for 38.6% of the spending, the social protection – for 32.9%, education – for 17.5%, healthcare – for 5.1%, while the costs associated with services in economy – for 12.5%.

Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu said the budget deficit this year will be covered mainly with external funding and with internal resources coming from privatization. 2016 started with very large debts to different institutions for 2015. These total 743.5 million lei.

A part of the MPs said that for the first time in Moldova’s history, 30% of the budget deficit is to be covered with external funding. According to them, this figure is considerable, but there is no certainty that Moldova will get these external funds.

The draft state budget law is to be adopted by Parliament in the third reading with the amendments proposed by MPs.