Financiarul

The state budget and the social security budget on Sunday morning were adopted by the specialized committees, following laborious debates, with the MPs having encountered the most difficult time when discussing the increase in the pension point.

The proposed growth in the pension point, put at 45 percent and already having the approval of the committees for labour, arose feverish debates in the specialized committee, which initially resulted in the social security budget being rejected, with MPs later deciding to resume voting and in the end to adopt the document.

The MPs motivated their decision to resume voting by saying they wanted to avoid any further public explanations, in the context the rejection of the social security budget for 2010 would have triggered a return to the 2009 budget scheme, with pension remaining thus blocked at the level last year, according to Social Democrat Viorel Stefan.

The debates on the state budget and on the social security budget began on Sunday morning, 10 a.m., but they were interrupted by the many breaks for consultation, generated by the misunderstandings related to how to vote on certain amendments. Despite all this, the members of the specialized committees have stuck to the result of the vote on Saturday morning ruling the meeting to be concluded only after the end of the debate on the state budget and the social security budget.

The 29 chapters of the general state budget did not suffer radical changes, despite the few thousands amendments brought by the opposition. The committees accepted another series of amendments to the state budget referring to the conditions of financing in the case of some national programmes, especially those affecting the local administrations.

More precisely, the specialized committees decided the national programmes of infrastructure to be financed following the order of their approval. Moreover, the Ministry of Finance was forced to make a report on a quarterly basis to the Parliament about the money to be injected in such programmes. Another important amendment brought to the general state budget referred to banning such bonuses or other stimuli being granted by the state-owned companies, regardless of whether they make profit or not.

Nevertheless, the Secretary of State with the Ministry of Finance Gheorghe Gherghina warned this amendment was practically useless, in the context it might lead to wage growths, as long as the ceiling for bonuses and stimuli is not exceeded. Moreover, the joint committees for budget-finance approved the amendment on the elimination of the minimum tax.