ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGESTЬ April 18-24. Most important Economy & Business news by IPN

● MONDAY, April 18

Government approves amendments to 2022 state budget law

The Government endorsed amendments to the 2022 state budget law. The deficit was raised by 4.25 billion lei to 19.4 billion lei or to 7.1% of the GDP. According to Minister of Finance Dumitru Budianschi, the added amount will be used to finance anti-crisis economic and social measures to reduce the impact of the energy crisis and the refugee crisis. “The Government’s emergency funds were practically used up. It is proposed supplementing these with 1.5 billion lei,” stated the minister. “Besides increasing the allocations for particular expenditure programs, the bill to amend the 2022 budget law envisions new programs aimed at supporting business development. For example, the National Agriculture Development Fund will be increased by 250 million lei, the Energy Efficiency Fund – by 250 million lei, the Ecological Fund – by 21 million lei, the programs to develop small and medium-sized enterprises – by 200 million lei,” said Dumitru Budianschi. The sources of deficit financing are to be modified following the revision of the inflows of loans, primarily of those designed to alleviate the impact of crises. Given that the internal sources to finance the state budget deficit grow more expensive, there will be used the foreign loans provided by the development partners.

“Moldovagaz” does not intend to ask NAER to adjust gas rates soon, Vadim Ceban

The joint stock company “Moldovagaz” in the near future will not request the National Agency for Energy Regulation to adjust the natural gas rates for end users, the president of the company’s Administration Board Vadim Ceban has said. Ceban posted the message on his Telegram channel after he earlier announced that the financial deviations accumulated by “Moldovagaz” SA in April owing to the difference between the price at which gas is purchased from Gazprom and the rate for end users were estimated at over half a billion lei. Household users now pay a rate of 14.06 lei/cubic meter of gas, plus the VAT rate of 8%. Until the end of March, the Government partially subsidized a volume of at most 150 cubic meters of consumed gas.

Government starts to release wheat from state reserves

The Government has initiated the release of wheat from the state reserves for the purpose of replenishing these. The announcement was posted on the Government’s portal for public consultations. “The refilling of the state reserves is necessary as the period during which the wheat can be kept expires and the quality will start to worsen. Essential financial losses can be generated as a result,” said the Ministry of Home Affairs, which was entrusted with the task of drafting the relevant Government decision. Interested parties’ recommendations about the given draft can be sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Public Service for State Reserves and Mobilization within five workdays.

Cabinet increases public costs

The Cabinet approved amendments to the 2022 state budget law by which it raised the public costs so as to maintain economic stability and jobs and to prevent weaknesses. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița said it is right to increase the costs in times of crisis. According to the authorities, the revenues will increase owing to the higher amounts collected as taxes and to the provided grant funding. “The national economy is affected by the war in Ukraine. The global energy and product prices rise and businesses face difficulties in keeping the markets, the suppliers, the costs and jobs. The times are extraordinary and require extraordinary decisions,” Premier Gavrilița told a news conference. The social protection costs were raised by 2.45 billion lei. The money will go to index and increase pensions and social benefits as from April 1. “I remind you that this year we augmented the Pension Fund by about 30%. We also increased other social costs. We allocated by 111.8 million lei more for the food of children in educational institutions. We increased the financing for the personal assistance service for persons with disabilities by 65 million lei and the allocations for paying for energy resources for budget-funded and public medical institutions. We added about 1 billion lei,” said the official.

Ion Ceban: Chisinau could be left without heat in autumn

The Government’s inaction in relation to Termoelectrica could lead to the disruption of heat supply in Chisinau in the autumn, unless there is emergency intervention in the repair and modernization of the heating infrastructure”, warned Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban. According to the mayor, due to the lack of major investments, the production equipment at the cogeneration plants (known as CETs) has gotten out of condition, leading to disruptions, low efficiency, and huge losses. “If you do not start repairing them immediately, not only will Chisinau be left without heat in the autumn, but the rates can increase again, by up to four times”, warns Ion Ceban. The mayor notes that the utility Termoelectrica has a project to develop the energy sector, with the support of the World Bank. The loan agreement was signed on 30 September 2020, the project entered into force on 29 March 2021, and will be completed by 31 December 2025. The project is estimated at 92 million euros. “The beneficiaries of the project are the population of Chisinau who live in residential blocks and the houses that will be connected to the project. The CETs were supposed to start being rehabilitated by now, but no finger was moved in this incompetent government”, remarked Ion Ceban.

● TUESDAY, April 19

Daniel Ioniță: Romania has intellectual and technical capacities to build power lines

Towards the completion of his duties, Romania’s Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova commented on the situation related to the Vulcănești – Chisinau power transmission line that is to be built by an Indian company that won the tender contest against a Romanian consortium. The diplomat refused to comment on the results of the tender contest, but assured that Romania has intellectual and technical capacities to build power lines. Moreover, he noted that Romania was interested in finishing the construction of the high-voltage power line on time so that Moldova could faster obtain energy independence. Last November, the Indian company KEC International won the tender contest to build the 400 kV Vulcănești-Chisinau overhead power transmission line. The contest involved ten companies, including the Romanian consortium. The difference between the prices offered by the Indian company and the Romanian consortium was of €30,000 for a contract to the value of €27 million. “I cannot comment on the results of a tender contest staged with the support of the World Bank. But I can say with certitude that Romania has intellectual capacities, I mean engineers, designers, those who know to build power lines, and also physical capacities, such as factories making insulators, electrical cables, fittings, poles for constructing such a power line. I say this as a former engineer-energetician. During a short period of my life, I even dealt with the building of power lines,” Daniel Ioniță stated in the talk show “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.

● WEDNESDAY, April 20

Platform enabling to monitor each trolleybus in Chisinau in real time to be launched

The contract for the purchase of GPS data for the public transport system of the municipality of Chisinau was won by “Arobs Trackgps” SRL as a result of a tender contest that involved five bidders. “This project is a key pillar for ensuring an efficient public transport service for passengers so that it becomes much more accessible to users,” said mayor Ion Ceban. There will be launched a platform enabling to track each trolleybus running on routes in Chisinau in real time, particularity to see if this is behind or ahead of schedule, its complete route, the time needed to cover the distance between stations, the speed, etc. The application will have a user-friendly interface and could be used both through desktop computers and through mobile devices. The contract with the winning company was signed by the Chisinau Electric Transport Company. As regards the Urban Bus Company, the enterprise is at the stage of designing the specifications for the next tender contest to purchase an intelligent system for tracking public transport using GPS. The current contract expires on July 31, 2022.

Moldova will benefit from gas and electricity regardless of situation with Gazprom, minister

If Gazprom suspends the contract with Moldovagaz, there are solutions that can be implemented to supply the Republic of Moldova with natural gas and electrical energy after May 1, said Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development. He noted that effort is being made for the impact on prices to be as low as possible. “I want to assure you, dear citizens, that no matter how the situation on the energy market develops, the Republic of Moldova will be supplied with natural gas and electricity,” Andrei Spînu stated in a news conference. The minister said that no answer has been yet received to the letters sent by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development and Moldovagaz to Gazprom, referring to the extension of the time limit for planning the repaying of the historical debt for the gas supplied to the right bank of the Nistru. “Regrettably, the audit could not be performed and the Moldovan-Russian economic commission didn’t have a meeting, but the two actions were necessary for planning the payment of the debt,” stated Andrei Spînu. Therefore, the authorities are preparing solutions for any situation. The legislation was amended so as to introduce the obligation to store natural gas. A sum of €150 million borrowed from the EBRD was allocated for creating natural gas reserves this summer. With the assistance of the foreign partners, Energocom is getting ready to enter international markets. Seven serious companies with experience are ready to supply Moldova with gas. “For May, we have alternatives to the natural gas supplies. We have 24 million cubic meters of natural gas stored in the transport system of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The right bank of the Nistru needs 45 million cubic meters of gas for May,” said the official.

● THURSDAY, April 21

Reintegration Office about alleged obstacles placed to Transnistrian entrepreneurs

The official Chisinau never instituted so-called economic blockade measures and does not behave discriminatorily against the business community from the Transnistrian region, the Reintegration Policies Bureau said following the multiplication of accusations about alleged intentional limitation of imports of different categories of goods into the region made by Tiraspol. The institution noted the invoked difficulties are deliberately and artificially created by the de-facto decision makers of the region who resort to different preconditions for not complying with the national legislation and international commitments. According to the Bureau, the business entities of the region were registered and possess licenses issued by the national authorities. The internal and external commercial operations of these are performed in accordance with the legal provisions. The entrepreneurs interact directly and efficiently with the competent public institutions that offer them counseling, guidance, recommendations and explanations about the documents that need to be presented, the mandatory procedures and the faults that need to be removed. The attempts by Tiraspol to give a political undertone to the processes and to give the impression that normative frameworks work in parallel, with the imposition of unapproved rules, make the life of citizens and the activities of entrepreneurs from both banks of the Nistru more difficult.

Government offers grants of up to 200,000 lei for greening businesses

Thirty-eight enterprises were selected to receive grants of up to 200,000 lei from the government for greening their business. This was decided by the Steering Committee of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Greening Program, managed by ODIMM. Each grant constitutes up to 70% of the beneficiaries’ investment plans. About 6 million lei has been offered in total. 24 businesses are located in rural areas, and 14 others in Chisinau.
Fourteen companies accepted for financing have opted for treating wastewater and using it for surface irrigation or operational needs. Nine companies have opted for the purchase of waste recycling equipment. Other investment projects aim at reducing energy consumption by implementing thermal recovery systems, ventilation systems with air filtration. The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Greening Program was launched in November 2019 for a period of 36 months, and is implemented by ODIMM in coordination with the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure. Interested companies are encouraged to apply on  ODIMM’s website.

● FRIDAY, April 22

Final vote for bill that ensures equal pay for equal work

Companies will annually inform employees about everyone’s pay grade for each of the genders. The MPs adopted a bill to ensure equal pay for equal work after giving it a final reading. Bill sponsor, MP Doina Gherman said currently the law does not obliges employers to inform employees about the remuneration levels, depending on gender, but bans the disclosure of information about the salary as this is considered confidential information. Therefore, employees cannot find out if they are paid less for the same work as the one done by mates. The bill introduces such notions as “equal pay” and “work of equal value” in the law on the ensuring of equality as the legislation now does not explicitly define “equal pay”. It provides that besides the basic salary, the information about the pay grades by categories of employees doing equal work or work of equal value should include any payment in kind or bonuses or additional or variable payments added to the basic salary. The employees will be obliged to present this information regularly.