Moldovan cabinet holds meeting

Chisinau, 1 April /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu today chaired a cabinet meeting, on the agenda of which there were 15 subjects, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Serghei Puscuta unveiled a draft on the taking of responsibility before parliament for the adoption of measures to back the citizens and the entrepreneurial activity on the state of emergency period.  

The cabinet ruled to fully subsidize from the public budget the salary taxes in the case of employees, whose activity was ceased, as a result of the decisions taken within the state of emergency. Sixty percent of the salary taxes will be recovered for the employees of the economic agents indirectly hit.  

During the state of emergency, all people who apply to the National Employment Agency will benefit from unemployment benefit worth 2,775 lei. Decision-makers ruled to cut the quota of the value added tax (VAT) for the enterprises working in the HoReCa industry from 20 to 15 per cent. The cabinet also made amendments to the administration of taxes by merging of six separate taxes into three ones. This step will simplify the administration of processes for the economic agents and the State Fiscal Service.   

Serghei Puscuta also presented a draft on the amendment of the Law No 293/2017 on the First Home state programme. The amendments proposed enhance the programme’s accessibility, by raising the age ceiling of the applicants from 45 to 50 years. The quota of personal participation in the real estate’s cost was decreased from 10 to 5 per cent. The condition of lack of a real estate owned for those applying to this programme was removed. The beneficiaries of the mortgage loans borrowed before the launch of the First Home programme, i.e. ahead of 26 March 2018, will have opportunity to access the programme. For this year, 70 million lei is stipulated for the implementation of the First Home state programme.  

Economics and Infrastructure Minister Sergiu Railean presented for approval a draft on starting talks for the signing of a contract on financing between Moldova and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the project, Energy Efficiency in Moldova. Within this project, EIB will provide Moldova with a loan worth 30 million euros for the carrying out of the Energy Efficiency in Moldova project, the overall value of which is 75 million euros. Thirty million euros represents a loan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a grant worth 15 million euros, provided on the Neighbourhood Investments Platform of the European Commission. The project’s implementation period starts in the third quarter of this year and ends in the third quarter of 2024.      

Education, Culture and Research Minister Igor Sarov unveiled a draft on starting negotiations and signing of an Additional Protocol for the amendment of the Agreement between the Education, Culture and Research Ministry and the Education Ministry of China from 2014. As a result, the number of scholarships provided by each of the sides will increase to 25.