Chisinau municipality enters new year without budget

The draft municipal budget for 2013, which was proposed for approval in the first reading, wasn’t passed by the Chisinau Municipal Council. The Communist councilors voted against after their two proposals concerning the budget were rejected, Info-Prim Neo reports. Communist councilman Igor Lupulciuc proposed that the deficit be increased from 20.7 million lei to 150 million lei. “The budget deficit is only 20.7 million lei. We propose raising it to 150 million lei, which will be covered with incomes from privatization,” he said. He also suggested doubling the heat compensations fund. “The previous heating season, the fund was 77 million lei, but now it should be 150 million lei. If our proposals are accepted, we will vote for the budget in the first reading.” Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said the two proposals cannot be accepted for the reason that the deficit cannot be of 150-200 million lei. “In the current conditions, the deficit cannot exceed 80 million lei. The related proposals are populist in character,” he stated. As a result, the Communist faction abstained from voting. The draft budget for 2013 wasn’t approved by the Socialists either. Elena Danu said the councilors want to approve important things on the last 100 meters. “This draft budget is formed according to the principle “what we have and for what we can allocate”, not by analyzing every component separately,” she said The attempt to vote the 2013 budget on November 29 also failed. The December 20 meeting of the Chisinau Council was the last this year.