More money will be earmarked for subsidizing farmers in 2014. A sum of 400 million lei was allocated for the purpose in 2013, while next year the figure will rise to about 670 million lei, said Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, IPN reports.
In the hearings held by the parliamentary commission on agriculture, the minister said the money allocated for agricultural subsidies this year is not enough and the Ministry of Agriculture has to look for foreign financing. “There are state bodies that are unable to put to good use the money allocated to them from the budget, while we can absorb two times more, but do not have it,” stated Vasile Bumacov.
He also said that there remained only one third of the sum earmarked for this year. “The remaining money will not be paid by October 1. When all the applications are collected, there will be calculated the coefficient. The applicants ask for large sums and we cannot cope,” said Vasile Bumacov.
The commission’s head Gheorghe Popa said many farmers complain that they submitted applications for subsidies, but haven’t received the money yet. The members of the commission proposed that in the next meeting of the Cabinet, the minister of agriculture should ask that the sum of 100,000 lei that hasn’t been used by the Ministry of Economy should be transferred for subsidizing farmers. They promised they will convince the parliamentary groups of which they form part to support this proposal.
