Moldovan cabinet approves draft budget law for 2019. PM describes draft as focused on investments in people

Chisinau, 8 November /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet of ministers today approved the draft State Budget Law for 2019. The document implies ensuring a balance between the stability of public money and the economic growth, based on priorities of public policies of the cabinet for the next year, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.  

The budget for 2019 will be focused, in particular, on the social sector – with the expenses for the social protection increased by 2.2 billion lei. Besides the financing of new measures dealing with the social protection of low-income persons and elderly people, the draft also sees allocation of sources to improve the policies of financial support of families with many children and protection of children at risk.   

At the same time, under the draft budget for 2019, the projects on the repair of public roads and projects in the education sector, meant to ensure access to quality education, remain priority.  

Also, the budget for the next year will further maintain the investment component. More than 3.5 billion lei will be earmarked for the implementation of projects financed from external sources alone. In 2019, 66 projects financed from foreign sources will be under implementation. The most important ones refer to the infrastructure of national and local roads, implementation of new projects in the education sector and development of agriculture.   

 „This is a budget focused, first of all, on investments in people, a budget which will ensure the continuing of projects on infrastructure underway, including the Good Roads projects. At the same time, this is a draft focused also on the increase of residents’ incomes, taking into account the reform of the pensions’ system carried out, as well as the law on wage payment,” PM Pavel Filip said.    

The transfers from the state budget to other budgets will increase by more than 3.2 billion lei, with the overall sum of financing reaching 22.4 billion lei. The largest allocation of sources is directed to the Social Insurances Budget (BASS). Transfers worth almost 11 billion lei are reserved for local budgets; the sum is to cover the spending for salaries, opening of pre-school institutions and children’s nourishment. The transfers to the Mandatory Health Insurances Fund will amount to 2.8 billion lei. 

The draft law, approved by the cabinet, also provides for a 9.4-per cent increase of the revenues to the National Public Budget up to almost 63.4 billion lei. The state budget revenues will amount to 42.1 billion lei, growing by 14 per cent. The biggest revenues to the state budget will be made from the collection of taxes and duties.   

The overall expenses will amount to 69.2 billion lei and will be higher by 6.1 billion lei. The state budget spending will be 47.6 billion lei, which is by 13.5 per cent more.  

The deficit of the National Public Budget is estimated at 5.8 billion lei, or 2.7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. The state debt will be worth 62.8 billion lei in late 2019, up by 10.3 per cent. The share of the debt in the GDP will not exceed the level of the debt for this year - 30 per cent.   

The draft State Budget Law for 2019 will be submitted to parliament for consideration and adoption.