Romania’s Govt. to ask lawmakers to pass 2020 budget bill with no amendments

Romanian prime minister Ludovic Orban announced that his Government will use the special accelerated procedure (also known as taking responsibility) for having the 2020 budget planning bill passed by the Parliament, Hotnews.ro reported.

Under the procedure, the Government receives amendment proposals, but decides on its own whether to accept or reject them.

On the downside, the lawmakers are given the option to file a no-confidence motion that if passed with a majority of votes leads to the fall of the Executive.

This is for the first time in the last 30 years when the state budget would be adopted without a proper debate and vote in the Parliament.

PM Orban explained that it is very difficult to pass the budget law through a normal procedure in the Parliament by the end of the year, as planned by the Government.

However, the main thing the Government wants to avoid is having amendments added to the bill (especially additional expenses) that would make it more difficult to keep the budget deficit under control.

The Government has already published the 2020 budget draft bill, which provides a deficit of 3.6% of GDP, lower than this year but still significantly over the 3% of GDP limit required by EU norms.

The Fiscal Council, an independent body that issues opinions on the Government’s and Parliament’s fiscal and budgetary policies, believes the budget for 2020 is grounded on slightly optimistic assumptions, including an economic growth rate of 4.1%, which is above consensus.

Moreover, the budget draft bill does not take into account the doubling of child allowances (with an impact of 0.5% of GDP) that was endorsed by the Parliament on Wednesday (December 18), or the VAT rate cut (with an estimated impact of 1.1% of GDP) that still awaits the deputies’ vote.

(Photo: Gov.ro)