The overdue agricultural subsidies of 230 million lei accumulated last year will be paid by the end of this month, said the vice director of the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture Nicolae Ciubuc.

“There were delays in signing the payment documents at the Ministry of Finance, but things returned to normality with the installation of the new Government and this month we hope to clear the debts related to the agricultural subsidies for 2014,” the official said in a talk show on Radio Moldova. As to the subsidies for this year, there were received over 1,600 applications for subsides of 250 million lei, IPN reports.

The agriculture subsidization fund this year totals 610 million lei. “We have 130 million lei left, for which we will receive applications from producers that made investments. We hope we will have enough money to satisfy all the demands. If not, the debts will be settled next year,” stated Nicolae Ciubuc.

According to him, after a new program with the IMF is negotiated, the size of the agriculture subsidization fund could be reconsidered. The farmers hope to get at least 1 billion lei in subsidies.