Moldovan cabinet holds meeting

Chisinau, 1 July /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu today chaired a cabinet meeting, with 30 drafts on the agenda, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

The cabinet took responsibility for four drafts on a string of amendments to the annual budgetary laws. The amendments imply the increase in the state budget revenues by 52.4 million lei, especially at the expense of increasing the transfers by 33.9 million lei from state enterprises and stock companies with the state’s participation and donations for backing the budget.    

The state budget revenues will grow by 1,273.3 million lei. The main increases will be for the transfer of 469.6 million lei to the state social insurances budget (BASS) given the payment of 700 lei to about 660,000 pensioners with incomes lower than 3,000 lei per month (466.3 million lei) and for the payment of the allowances for the descendants of 64 medical employees who died as a result of carrying out medical work in fighting COVID-19 (3.3 million lei); another 428 million lei will be transferred to the Fund of the Mandatory Health Insurances  (FAOAM).    

- 362.5 million lei will go for increasing the salaries of the medical staff by 30 per cent as of 1 September 2020, for four months, for about 42,918 units of occupied staff or 38,793 employees, of whom 1,130 ambulance drivers.

- 65.5 million lei will be used to increase the spending of the National Centre for Emergency Pre-Hospital Medical Assistance (CNAMUP), for salary increases (50 per cent of the basic salary) to about 4,501 units of occupied personnel or 3,766 employees and providing the current expenses.  

- 106 million lei at the expense of the FAOAM balance will be allocated to cover the increases of 100 per cent to the basic salary for the medical staff of hospitals for about 4,102 employees.

- 175 million lei will be earmarked for covering the insufficiency of staff expenses and for increasing by 30 per cent the salaries of the medical staff from the institutions financed from the state budget and local budgets starting from 1 September 2020.

- 40 million lei will go for the increase in salaries of about 4,500 employees and 135 million lei for compensating the insufficiency of staff spending in the general education institutions.   

The amendments approved by the cabinet provides for the supplementing by 100 million lei of the fund for backing farmers; allocation of 50 million lei for the development of the entrepreneurial infrastructure in the form of 16 industrial platforms; earmarking of 20 million for social benefits for the implementation of the First Home state programme, allocation of one million lei for contracting external audit services within the Competition Council and Audiovisual Coordination Council; allocation of 4 million lei for the contracting of scanning services (S2 Global) for the Customs Service, etc.

The deficit of the national public budget will amount to 17,534.5 million lei, up by 1,327.3 million lei or 8.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The state budget will be financed through macro-financial assistance Omnibus, worth 2,080 million lei, equivalent of 100 million euros, on behalf of the European Union and additional issuance of state transferable securities on the primary market amounting to 2,000 million lei.

According to the amendments, the available balance in the state budget on the basic component on 31 December 2020 will be of 5.6 billion lei.  

Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Minister Ion Perju unveiled a draft which sees possibility that the state enterprise, Mecagro institute of agricultural technology doubles the term of prorogation for the reimbursement of the sums due to be returned on the technical loans provided to Moldova’s farmers. The period of 3 years at the most will be replaced by 6 years. The decision’s beneficiaries will be the economic agents which own farmlands beyond the Rabnita-Tiraspol highway, as well as those who were hit by the natural calamities. In the context of the climate changes, the calamities can have a repeated character, which can deprive farmers from their income source for the payment of the loan’s installments.     

The cabinet of ministers approved a string of amendments to the strategy of supply with water and sanitation (2014-2028). The goal is to ensure access to water and sanitation in all Moldovan settlements till 2030. The draft provides for updating the objectives and including a new annex – Action Plan for 2020-2024. The actions will be aimed at strengthening the capacities of the local public authorities and operators of the Apa-Canal administrations, updating the normative framework s and construction of the system of supply with water and sanitation, in order to ensure the human right to water and fair access to safe sources of drinking water.  

The estimated cost of implementing the action plan is of 2,338, 471.25 thousand lei, of which 2, 336, 320 thousand lei – external sources 851.25 thousand lei from the state budget.   

Education, Culture and Research Minister Igor Sarov proposed for approval the amendment of the Article 41 of the Education Code. The version establishes that the general education pupils will be compulsorily provided with school manuals for free. So far, only the pupils from the primary school have been supplied with textbooks free of charge.

Economics and Infrastructure Minister Sergiu Railean presented for approval a programme on supporting business with high potential of growth and its internationalization. The programme targets three priority sectors: investments in increasing the business, its competitiveness and productiveness; replacement of imports and orientation towards export; creation and consolidation of relations with local and foreign partners.  

The project’s goal is to back the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with an important role in the development of the national economy and contributes directly to the formation of GDP and the creation of jobs.  

Interior Minister Pavel Voicu presented for approval a string of amendments to the law on the integrated automated information system for the record of offences, criminal files and the people who committed offences. The goal is to improve and simplify the automated record of the offences through ensuring the opportune and coherent normative basis.   

Agriculture Minister Ion Perju presented a draft on the setting up of the national commission for climate changes. The draft‘s goal is to create an efficient institutional instrument of coordinating, monitoring, checking and reporting in the field of attenuating and adaptation of Moldova’s social and economy’s sectors to the climate changes.  

Health, Labour and Social Protection Minister Viorica Dumbraveanu unveiled a draft on the re-establishment of the State Labour Inspectorate with duties of control in the field of labour security and health, as well as in the labour relations sector. The decision’s goal is to ensure the bringing of the national legislation in line with the conventions of the International Labour Organization, ratified by Moldova.