Minister of Finance foresees important budgetary income losses as result of “wine crisis”

Moldova could loose important budget income as result of the so- called “wine crisis”. “We cannot speak yet about lost incomes which cannot be covered from other sources, but a long-term crisis could mean rather big losses,” Minister of Finance Mihai Pop noted. Even he did not reply directly to certain questions, it was clear that a long-term crisis could also mean a larger budgetary gap. „Now we do not have any reason for changing the forecasts on certain budgetary and macroeconomic indicators,” the Minister mentioned. At the same time, Mihai Pop noticed that the rate of wine making industry is of 600 million lei from the total budget (15 billion lei). „Still, the wine crisis affects other sectors of the economy as well,” the minister mentioned. Therefore, lost incomes from other fields generated by wine crisis could be added to budget losses. Minister of Finance underlines that wine exports would be de-blocked at the end of this month; the budget would not feel the effects of the crisis. „In the first quarter the budget incomes got over the foreseen amount of 240 million lei, this way we have sources for covering possible losses as result of a short-term crisis.” Starting 27 March 2006, Russian Federation banned, unilaterally, wine imports from Moldova on the ground that they contain harmful substances for health. Local experts, as well as foreign ones consider that this is a political action of the Kremlin and not a sanitary or economic one.