ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGEST December 28 – January 3. Most important Economy & Business news by IPN
● WEDNESDAY, December 30
2021 budget of Chisinau approved without debates
The Chisinau Municipal Council on December 29 approved the municipal budget for 2021 in two readings right away. The draft budget was voted by the councilors of the PSRM, the Shor Party, the PDM and PUN. The councilors of the PPPDA, the PAS and the PL left the meeting hall in protest. The document wasn’t debated and no amendments were proposed. Mayor General Ion Ceban assured that even more important projects for the development of Chisinau will be implemented next year. Among these are the drafting of the General Urban Design Plan, implementation of e-ticketing in municipal transport, setting up of parking places, repair of roads and sidewalks and rehabilitation of parks and squares. An important aspect of the municipal budget for next year is the allocation of financial resources for rehabilitating the yards of apartment buildings and supporting of development projects in the localities that form part of the municipality of Chisinau.
CMC approves new and adjusted local taxes for 2021
The Chisinau Municipal Council on December 29 approved the budgetary-fiscal policy of the local authorities for 2021. The local taxes applied in the municipality were adjusted to the rate of inflation and new local taxes were introduced, such as the cleanup tax. Mayor General Ion Ceban said the modifications made to the budgetary-fiscal policy were necessary as some of the local taxes haven’t been adjusted since 2004. Starting with next year, the inhabitants of the municipality will pay a cleanup tax that is expected to generate about 100 million lei revenues. The market tax, the taxes for advertising devices, territorial development and parking were adjusted to the rate of inflation, while the tax rates for the provision of road transportation services in the municipality for each bus and minibus ware kept at the level of 2020.
Experimental platform “Electronic Register of Employees” to be launched
The State Tax Service plans to launch the experimental platform of the Automated Information System “Electronic Register of Employees”. The utilization of the system will become mandatory for the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the National House of Social Insurance and the National Health Insurance Company on January 1, 2021. According to the State Tax Service, the platform is designed to automate the process of keeping records of employed persons and of labor relations and to facilitate access to data in real time. Initially, the system will be implemented for the budgetary sector. Later, the process of adjusting and integrating it for the real sector will be described and approved. Among the main objectives of the system are to create and approve the personnel units, employment schemes and files of employees. The development of the system will continue in the course of 2021 for the budgetary sector, by including all the components stipulated in the concept of the system.
Energy Transparency Index of Moldova in 2020 is insufficient, report
The Energy Transparency Index of the Republic of Moldova in 2020 is insufficient. The shortcomings in the field are related to the incomplete monthly statistics, lack of reports on the implementation of network development plans or excessive concentration of the market in the natural gas sector, shows the report on the Energy Transparency Index of Moldova by energy balance, natural monopolies, supply, reliability and safety that was presented by energy expert Victor Parlicov. In a news conference at IPN, Victor Parlicov, speaking about the four mentioned categories, highlighted several good practices, such as the publication of compliance plans and network development plans and approval of action plans for emergencies. Victor Parlicov said the 115 selected indexes were classified into eight categories. The information was collected in August – October 2020. The study reflects the situation regarding transparency, accessibility of information, the state of affairs in the energy sector.
Local taxes that will be applied as of Jan. 1 in Chisinau
A new cleanup tax will start to be applied in the municipality of Chisinau on January 1, 2021. Each private individual registered with the domicile at the declared address will pay by 10 lei a month. The pensioners, persons with disabilities and children under 18 will not pay this tax. In 2021, the tax for dog owners is 120 lei a year per animal. The blind persons and the lonely pensioners are exempted from this tax, on condition that they keep only one dog. The territorial development tax will be 180 lei a year for each employee and/or founder of individual enterprise, farmers or persons who perform professional activity in the justice sector. The parking tax paid by parking organizers was set at 30 lei a year per square meter. The tax for advertising devices is 750 lei a year per square meter. The market tax will be 48 lei to 840 lei a square meter a year, depending on the type of the market. The local tax rates will start to be applied on January 1, 2021
● THURSDAY, December 31
Over 40.5bn lei fiscal revenues collected this year
The State Tax Service this year has collected 40.5 billion lei fiscal revenues into the national public budget, an increase of 3.5% compared with last year. A sum of 17.1 billion lei was collected into the state budget in 2020, a decline of 1.1% on 2019. According to the Service, the fiscal revenues collected into the local budgets came to 4.1 billion lei, an increase of 8.8% compared with last year. The amounts collected into the state social insurance budget added up to 14.5 billion lei, up 7.9%. The revenues collected into the mandatory health insurance funds totaled 4.9 billion lei, up 3.7% on 2019.
Impact of pandemic crisis on sectors of national economy, minister’s report
The GDP in January – September 2020 declined by 8.2% compared with the corresponding period last year, being influenced by the impact of the pandemic crisis on the sectors of the national economy. Among the most affected were the hospitality industry, domestic trade, processing industry, transport, storage, building and service sector. The situation was presented by Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Anatol Usatyi in a news conference at the end of his tenure. According to Anatol Usatîi, 466 entrepreneurs were trained as part of the program to support the digitization of SMEs designed in reaction to the situation generated by the crisis and at the suggestion of the business community. Within the first call of grant proposals, 180 businesses were financed in the amount of 11.36 million lei. These are to maintain over 1,000 jobs.
Employers and trade unions pronounce on modified method of paying health insurance premium
Before making changes to the method of paying the mandatory health insurance premium by working persons, the proposals weren’t discussed with experts of the National Trade Union Confederation. On the other hand, the National Employers Confederation said the made changes are insignificant. From January 1, 2021, the premium will be fully paid by employees. Instead, the employers will assume responsibility for fully paying the contribution to the pension fund. Contacted by IPN for details, vice director of the National Employers Confederation Petru Chiria said the given changes are welcome for employers and employees. “Initially, it was proposed making these payments the burden of employees, but such a path was avoided given the current socioeconomic situation and the fact that a part of the employees work once or two times a week and the burden of these costs is somehow balanced out,” he explained.
● SATURDAY, January 2
Contracts for supply and transportation of natural gas extended
The period of validity of the current contracts for the supply and transportation of natural gas to the Republic of Moldova by Gazprom was prolonged for a year. The announcement was posted by the public relations service of Moldovagaz on the company’s website. According to the quoted source, the given documents were approved in the meeting of the company’s Supervisory Board and were signed in the agreed order. A year ago, on December 31, 2019, the sides also extended the contracts for a year. During the period of their validity, it is applied the same European formula for setting the purchase prices of natural gas, which is based on the average arithmetic value of the selling price of natural gas supplied by Gazprom to European countries and the quotations of oil products, noted the supplier.
Moldova’s international investment position at yearend
The international investment position of the Republic of Moldova on September 30, 2020 was US$5 625,21 million or 47.6% of the GDP, the balance of debts rising by 12.8% compared with the end of 2019. According to the National Bank of Moldova, the foreign financial assets at the end of 2020 were 5 306,22 million, an increase of 0.3% compared with the start of 2020, while the foreign liabilities came to US$10 931,43 million, up 6.4%. The ratio of assets to liabilities was 0:48.5%, down 2.95 compared with the end of 2019. In the first nine months of 2020, the official reserve assets rose by 12.9% compared with the start of the year, totaling US$3 453,39 million on September 30, 2020. The commitments in the form of direct investments came to US$4 813,63 million, down 1.7% compared with the start of the year, representing 44% of the foreign liabilities.
Absolute poverty rate in 2019 was 25.2%
The absolute poverty threshold on average per person in 2019 was 2,095.13 lei. The absolute poverty rate was 25.2%, IPN reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. The poverty rate is the main indicator used to measure poverty and represents the proportion of persons whose consumption costs are lower than the set poverty threshold. The rural population is exposed to a bigger poverty rate than the urban population. The poverty rate in rural areas in 2019 was 34.5%, as opposed to 11.2% in urban areas. The poverty rate is much higher in the southern region (40.4%), while in the municipality of Chisinau it is much lower (4.4%). Depending on the type of household, the lowest poverty rate was in households consisting of one member younger than 60 and of couples without children younger than 60 (13.0%). The highest poverty rate (38.1%) was in households consisting of one member older than 60 and with three children and more.
Balance of payments in third quarter of 2020 with deficit of US$333.03m
The current account deficit of the balance of payments of Moldova in the third quarter of 2020 was US$333.03 million. The capital account recorded a negative balance of US$23.45 million, while the financial account resulted in net capital inflows of US$412.20 million. According to the National Bank of Moldova, the current account deficit of the balance of payments in the first nine months of 2020 declined by 39.9% to US$556.61 million on January-September 2019. The current account was -6.4% of the GDP. The deficit of trade in goods was US$2 179,02 million, down 11.0% compared with January-September 2019. Despite the considerable decline in the physical volume of exported goods, exports declined to a lesser extent owing to the rise in the prices of exported goods. The outflows of primary revenues, especially the revenues for being paid to foreign investors, declined. The surplus of the secondary revenues rose by 18.1% on January-September 2019.
