The budget-paid employees in the municipality of Chisinau whose salary is lower than 1,450 lei will receive a monthly allowance of 130 lei. The decision was taken at Thursday's meeting of the Chisinau Council after several hours of deliberation, Info-Prim Neo reports. Under the decision, the allowance will be provided in two installments, in May and December, to cover the heating costs for January-March and November-December. About 21,000 persons will benefit from allowances, including teachers, educators and other employees working in the social and cultural sectors, technical and auxiliary personnel of public institutions. The total costs were assessed at 12.7 million lei and will be covered from the money that remained unused in the 2009 budget. Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said the City Hall is the first state institution that provides such financial assistance to budget-paid employees. Tatiana Nagnibeda Tverdohleb, the head of the General Division of Education, Youth and Sport, said the teachers have long expected this assistance. “Certainly, we wanted higher salaries, but this is not possible at present,” she said. Liberal-Democrat councilor Ghenadie Dumanschi said the teachers do not need this allowance, but a salary bonus of 20%, as until now. He criticized Dorin Chirtoaca, who is the vice president of the Liberal Party, saying he does not implement efficient measures to collect money into the municipal budget. “The electoral campaign starts in a year,” the mayor responded, suggesting that Ghenadie Dumanschi was campaigning against the Liberal Party. Unaffiliated councilor Oleg Cernei said they'd better increase the salaries of the budget-paid employees by 20%, but Dorin Chirtoaca replied that the International Monetary Fund does not approve of such a measure. The decision was passed by the vote of 34 councilors, four of whom Communist. In a communique, the Chisinau City Hall says the local authorities will return to the issue in the second half of the year to consider providing financial assistance for the other seven months of 2010 as well.