Dorin Chirtoaca should propose amendments to law to obtain interest of 1% on loans for purchasing trolleybuses, finance minister

Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca should submit a legislative initiative to Parliament to amend the law on the state debt and state guarantees so as to obtain a letter of guarantee from the Government for the loans used to buy new trolleybuses, Minister of Finance Veaceslav Negruta said, referring to the mayor's related statements, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Under the law on the state debt and state guarantee, the state cannot guarantee the given loans as on the one hand, the final beneficiary is a municipal company and, on the other hand, the lawmakers lay down the rules as regards guaranteeing and internal loans,” Veaceslav Negruta explained. Earlier, Dorin Chirtoaca stated for a television channel that he asked for a guarantee letter from the Government for the loans granted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank. Such a letter would have allowed obtaining an interest rate of 1% on the given loans. As the executive refused to provide guarantees, the loans are replayed at a rate of 5% and the higher price is paid out of Chisinau residents' pockets, said Dorin Chirtoaca. The Chisinau City Hall purchased 102 trolleybuses from the Belorussian company Belkommunmash within a project designed to modernize the public transport in the municipality. The first five trolleybuses are to get to Chisinau on March 30.