The farmers left disappointed the Parliament Building where they took part in the meeting of the special commission for drafting the package of legislative amendments to support the agricultural producers. They said they wait for concrete legislative initiatives, but haven’t heard good news so far, IPN reports.
After the meeting held behind closed doors, the head of the Union of Agricultural Producers Associations of Moldova Alexandru Slusari said the discussion was difficult and they didn’t see the minister of finance’s readiness to make effort to increase the Agriculture Subsidization Fund.
The farmers suggested two variants: redistributing a part of the excise payments from the Road Fund to the Agriculture Subsidization Fund, at least the amount of excises collected on diesel fuel used in farming, and increasing the Agriculture Subsidization Fund by taking out a loan from the National Bank or by issuing securities. The minister of finance accepted none of the two proposals.
Alexandru Slusari said he is waiting for the next meeting set for next week and is hopeful that concrete legislative initiatives will be presented there so that the farmers could solve their problems. Besides the difficulties faced following the depreciation of the national currency against the main foreign currencies, the famers are also affected by drought.
According to the Parliament’s press service, the participants in the meeting discussed a number of proposals formulated by the representatives of farmers. These will be analyzed and clear regulation mechanisms will be identified. Head of Parliament Andrian Candu said that a separate section was created on the legislative body’s website, where all the information on the issue will be placed. It is called “Agricultural package”.
In the next meeting, representatives of the Ministry of Finance will present an analysis of the statistical data concerning the money collected into the budget and of the macroeconomic indicators in the period when the income tax was 0% as well as other additional information that can help identity solutions to augment the Agriculture Subsidization Fund.
