Revenues to next year’s State Budget are expected to amount to 50.1 billion lei, 9.2% up on this year, according to the draft State Budget Law approved today by the Government. The main policy measures concern salaries, health care, social protection, regional and local development, as well as business environment, IPN reports.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița declared at the beginning of the Government’s meeting that “the budget for 2022 is, first of all, a budget for the people” because the amounts allocated for social protection and social support of citizens will increase significantly. It is also a development budget, because allocations and expenditures for roads, regional and local development and infrastructure will be increased as well.

Expenses will grow by 7.5 billion to 65.2 billion lei. Transfers to secondary budgets account for 51.4% of the total, or 33.5 billion lei, and 48.6% are the costs of the projects to be implemented by the central authorities. The costs of projects funded from foreign sources in 2022 are estimated at 5.4 billion.

The draft state budget provides for an increase in cold period aid, along with an increase in the number of beneficiaries. Additionally, households will be partially compensated for gas and heating costs.

An amount of 6.7 billion lei is provided for capital expenditures, by 1.8 billion lei more compared to 2021, of which capital investment will be 2.7 billion lei, by 405 million lei more compared to 2021.

The state budget deficit is estimated at 15.1 billion lei. The main sources of its funding are net inflows from foreign loans for budget support and the implementation of projects financed from foreign sources, and at domestic level the deficit will be covered with issues of state securities and revenues from the sale or privatization of public assets.

Sovereign debt as of 31 December 2022 is estimated at 103.3 billion lei, not exceeding 40.4% of GDP, or by 3.7 points more than at the end of 2021.

Also on Friday, the Government decided that the 2022 Mandatory Health Insurance Fund will amount to 12.287 billion lei in both revenues and expenses. Compared to the amount for 2021, revenues increase by 1.143 billion lei, and expenditures by 943.503 million lei. Mandatory health insurance premiums deduced from salaries and other earnings will amount to 5.984 billion lei. For 2022, premiums will remain unchanged at 9% or a fixed fee of 4,056 lei.

The draft law on the state social insurance budget for 2022 was also approved, with revenues of 31.2 billion lei, increasing by 3.7 billion lei compared to the current year. 59.8% of the total are general resources of the state social insurance budget and 40.2% are transfers from the state budget. Also, the project provides for expenditures of 31.2 billion lei.