The bill on subsidization drafted last year is to be finalized in a week, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eduard Grama said in a meeting of the press club of the Association of Economic Journalists, IPN reports.
“The law stipulates the main principles of subsiding agricultural producers. These do not depend on the ruling parties, political cataclysms and other subjective factors. On the other hand, the subsidization regulations had been until now approved with delay, in about half a year, owing to the change of government. The law will exclude these moments. We hope this will be adopted in the spring session of Parliament,” said the minister.
According to Eduard Grama, until the subsidization law takes effect, new subsidization regulations will be approved so as to prevent delays in the provision of agricultural subsidies for 2016. “As to novelties, the cultivation of ecological products will be subsidized. We are thinking about subsidizing particular products intended for export. We plan to pay subsidies per hectare of farmland, as the farmers asked, starting with 2017. For the purpose, we need a larger subsidization fund,” he stated.
As to the size of the subsidization fund for this year, the minister said that the 2016 draft budget law provides for a sum of 1 billion lei. “Of this sum, 15 million lei will be allocated to the National Office of Vine and Wine, 45 million lei will be used to pay the compensations promised by the Government to producers, 400-430 million lei will go to pay the overdue subsidies for 2015, and about 500 million will remain for paying subsidies for this year,” he stated.
Eduard Grama noted that they aim to resolve three issues that cannot be postponed during the first 100 days, namely to work out regulations concerning the use of underground waters by economic entities from the sector, in concert with the Ministry of Environment, to finish and present the Land Code and to work out a new methodology regarding the import of diesel fuel by agricultural producers for their needs.
