The 2015 state budget was fulfilled in difficult conditions determined by the economic recession, significant rise in inflation and depreciation of the national currency against foreign currencies. Also, imports and exports decreased compared with last year, while the foreign donors halted the assistance provided as budget support. Such conclusions were formulated by the Audit Office, which examined the Government’s report on the fulfillment of the budget for last year, IPN reports.
Though the state budget incomes during the last seven years have continuously increased, the income collection plans were fulfilled non-uniformly in the period. The lowest fulfillment level was recorded in 2015 (95.5%). Such a situation is due to external factors and to the unsatisfactory accuracy level of the macroeconomic forecasts that shaped budget indicators. The Audit Office auditors consider the incomes per types of taxes, including VAT, weren’t forecast, given the reality.
The founders of state-run companies and shareholder councils of joint stock companies with majority state capital didn’t take measures to increase the share capital with money saved by not paying dividends and deductions from the net profit. The volume of tax and customs concessions provided to business entities increased by 2.4 billion lei (43.9%) on 2014, totaling 7.9 billion lei at the end of 2015.
The Audit Office recommends the Government to review its policies and to show greater prudence when providing concessions given that the overdue amounts decrease, but at a very slow pace. The state budget expenditure could not be met owing to the lack of incomes and the halt in external financing.
