Romanian finance minister defers budget revision to “maybe next week”

The budget revision bill will be published for public debates early next week to be passed “maybe next week” since it must first be reviewed by the Country’s Supreme Defense Council - CSAT, finance minister Eugen Teodorovici announced on July 25, according to local Mediafax.

There are other steps to be taken before the final approval for the revision, involving the Social Economic Council and the Fiscal Council, he added, hinting that the one week period for the whole process might be too short.

Upon admitting in June that a significant amount of money (some 0.7% of GDP) “is missing” in order to meet the 3%-of-GDP deficit target this year, Teodorovici promised at that time to come up with corrective measure under the first revision by July 31.

Already under pressure from local administrations (that expected supplementary funds under the mid-year revision), Teodorovici also came under criticism from the president of the junior ruling party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The ALDE head, announcing his presidential candidacy beside prime minister Viorica Dancila, accused Teodorovici of lack of transparency regarding the budget revision. To address such concerns, Teodorovici promised that the budget revision bill would be discussed “by all the ministries” next week.

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