Chisinau’s draft budget for 2007 to be debated Thursday in first reading

The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) will debate Thursday November 23 the draft budget of Chisinau municipality for 2007 in the fist reading. The draft stipulates incomes totaling about 1.27 bln lei, including 1.23 bln lei from tax revenue. The municipal Support Fund is expected to be of 3.2 mln lei. At the same time, the draft budget for next year envisages approximately 1.29 bln lei as concerns expenses, comprising a deficit of about 19.1 mln lei. The authorities propose to supply this deficit with the means obtained from privatizing or selling public property. The draft stipulates transfers worth MDL 26.4 mln from the municipal budget to the budgets of the Chisinau municipality’s territorial-administrative units. The Reserve Fund of Chisinau is expected to amount to about 9 mln lei. Municipal councilor Mihai Roscovan, director of Business Consulting Institute, earlier told Info-Prim Neo that before elections the Government would become more generous towards the local administration, so it is likely that Chisinau’s budget will be more consistent than in the past years. The sums forecasted for incomes and expenses that will be proposed for debates in the first reading reach almost the same amounts as in 2006, but after long debates in CMC, the budget could increase significantly, Mihai Roscovan added.