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State budget draft law passed by parliamentary commissions

The two budget-finance commissions on Sunday morning, after an 18-hour long debate, passed the draft law of the state budget for 2010 by a vote of 28 and the social security budget by a vote of 39. Initially the social security budget had been rejected.

Voting was resumed as, if the budget in question had been sent to the plenum as rejected, the social security budget for last year would have stayed in force, with a lower pension for pensioners, a fact that made deputies and senators resume voting on this budget about 3:30 am, Romania's time, after heated debates among the members of the two commissions.

They approved some amendments to the draft state budget, including ones that eliminated the minimum tax, applied a lower VAT to building construction and a 3% tax on micro-enterprise revenue. The amendments were proposed by the Liberal Party, which also requested the penalty for delays in the payment of fiscal obligations be reduced from 0.1% per day to 0.03% per day. The request was rejected by the commissions, although they accepted a social democrat deputy's similar proposal, to reduce the penalty to 0.05% per day.

Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu said that the Government had already proposed eliminating the minimum tax. He was of the opinion that certain amendments should not have been approved, while others, which were rejected, would have supported the business environment had they been accepted.

The commissions approved an amendment to allow the deductibility of VAT in the case of automobiles.Finance Ministry state secretary Gheorghe Gherghina said eliminating the minimum tax would result in the budget earning 1 billion lei (EUR1= RON4.1679) less, the lower VAT applicable to building construction would cost the budget RON960 million and a further RON500 million would be lost because of deductible VAT in the case of cars. One of the rejected amendments proposed a 5% discount for taxpayers who pay their contributions on time.

The MPs rejected the Constitutional Court's budget, criticizing the significant increases in staff expenses, social assistance and current expenses compared to 2009. The commissions made changes to the draft budgets of some institutions and approved extra funds for the budget of certain ministries.

Lawmakers agreed on increasing the Agriculture Ministry's budget by 2.1 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.1679), from the initially proposed RON9.3 billion. The Justice Ministry will receive RON2.78 million to provide uniforms, equipment and meals for the employees of the National Prison Administration, according to an amendment approved by the commissions.The Romanian Cultural Institute's budget will be the same as in 2009, as the MPs rejected a Government proposal to increase it by 42.92%.

The commissions' report on the draft state budget for 2010 will be debated Monday in plenum by the Parliament.

Sursa: http://www.actmedia.eu

Tags: budget would approved rejected commissions draft state social