​PARLIAMENT PASSES ESSENTIAL BUDGET LAWS UNEXPECTEDLY AND LATE AT NIGHT

Late at night on Wednesday, the Moldovan Parliament approved the so-called ‘package of budget laws’ for the next year and the Concept of the 2021 Fiscal Policy – all in the absence of opposition parties, who announced yet on Wednesday noon their boycotting of the plenary meeting “because its agenda contains toxic bills”, and who then walked out of the room.

The package of budget laws was initially included into the plenary agenda for Thursday, and the opposition stated an intention to necessarily participate in their discussion and adoption. However, at about 22.30 hrs on Wednesday, the parliamentary majority re-assembled in the session room. Minutes later, a group of opposition parliamentarians showed up all of a sudden, rushed to the central rostrum and blocked it together with microphones thus trying to prevent the adoption of the laws. However, the parliamentary majority ignored the blockade and vociferous demands, and continued the discussion of the bills from their seats.

Parliament Deputy Speaker Alexandru Slusari of the Platforma DA party stated that the ongoing developments in the session room “are but a crime!”

“We are eye-witnessing criminalization of the Parliament. Budgets are adopted late at night so that nobody could learn how the money is going to be distributed. Prior to this nighttime plenary sitting, deputies from the Party of Socialists and the Sor Party held a meeting of a profiled parliamentary standing committee and distributed the public funds between themselves. The criminal groups divide the Budget money at night like real thieves! Such actions are impermissible in a civilized society!” stated Alexandru Slusari from the rostrum.

Pro Moldova Party Chairman Andrian Candu said that the new governing SorDon [Sor + Dodon] coalition is thus repeating the Democratic Party’s mistakes, without mentioning that he used to be number 2 personality in the party after Plahotniuc.

“During the period of its country governance, the Democratic Party committed many mistakes, which should be taken into account now. One of the greatest blunders was the absence of transparency and ignoring the rules of democracy – one of the chief reasons why the DPM eventually lost power. And you in the parliamentary majority are committing precisely same mistakes, so a same finale is awaiting you”, prophesied Andrian Candu.

Despite all the opposition’s appeals, the parliamentary majority voted for passing all the said financial laws – without discussing them. The Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance Sergiu Puscuta was present in the session room, but he did not make the presentation of the documents, and the parliamentary majority did not ask him questions. In a matter of 15 minutes, the majority adopted the Laws on the budget of the Social Fund and the budget of compulsory health insurance. They also approved without a discussion the Concept of the 2021 Fiscal Policy and the Law on the 2021 State Budget – without announcing even the main parameters of the Budget for the next year.

So, the ‘budget package” was finally adopted at about last midnight, supported by 56 MPs from the majority and several independent deputies.

The bill on the 2021 State Budget was based on the forecast of main macro-economic indicators for 2021-2023, and presupposes a GDP growth by 4.7% in 2021.

State Budget revenues have been projected at 41.4 billion lei and expenditures at 55.3 billion, with a deficit of 13.9 billion lei.

The deficit is going to be covered from domestic resources (revenues from selling public property and bank assets in the process of liquidation, issuance of governmental securities) and from external sources.

The revenue and expenditure sides of the budget of social insurance [aka Social Fund] will be 25.7 billion lei, with transfers from the State Budget in the amount of 10.4 billion lei. This law stipulates the repayment of a lump-sum allowance of 1,000 lei to pensioners whose pensions do not exceed 4,000 lei a month. There are 696 thousand such recipients in Moldova.

The budget of the compulsory health insurance stipulates revenues of 11.1 billion lei and expenditures of 11.3 billion lei, with a deficit of 200 million lei to be covered with the money remaining from 2020.