Finance Minister Natalia Gavrilița announces that 2020 budget, which the Government has called the "solidarity budget", not only provides for increases in salaries, pensions and allowances, but also envisages more possibilities for the local public authorities. The minister explained, within the framework of "O nas" (About us) program, on Jurnal TV, that the local mayor halls would benefit from a higher percentage of the income tax on both individuals and legal entities, IPN reports.
Natalia Gavrilita announces that wages will be increased, in particular for most employees in the budget system. "We will take certain steps so that citizens with limited incomes receive greater support from the state. It concerns increasing the amount of money for the cold period of the year and the aid for the low income pensioners to cover the expenses for electricity,” said the minister.
According to her, some categories of employees, for example, principals and deputy principals of schools, will benefit from an increase of more than 10% of the salary. In some situations, the increase will range between 1500 and 2000 lei per month. "We will also increase the salaries of mayors because at the local level there were cases when mayors received lower salaries than the directors of cultural centres. We will adjust certain salaries," the minister stressed.
The minister mentioned that the "solidarity budget" offers more possibilities to local public authorities. Thus, the income tax for individuals will remain 100% at local public authorities in rural regions, while in cities, district centres and municipalities this ratio will constitute 50%. Moreover, part of the income tax on legal entities will be channelled into a fund under the local public administration.
Expert Viorel Gârbu states that the total amount from which the local public authority will benefit will not change by and large, but the quality of the internal distribution of the tax will be modified. According to him, local public authorities have long been waiting for the qualitative change in the formation of the local budget. At the same time, the expert points out that Sandu Government is the first to seriously consider the problems of the local public authorities, understanding the difficulties faced by them.
The "solidarity budget" envisages an increase in compensations for the cold season from 350 to 500 lei for 400 thousand pensioners with low incomes. In addition, compensations for veterans of the Dniester conflict and war veterans in Afghanistan will be increased from 100 lei to 300 lei per month. Salaries are to be increased from 6% to 10% for all employees in the budget system.
Until the entry into force, Budget Law for 2020 is to be approved by the Government, and subsequently passed in Parliament.
