Romania’s prime minister Ludovic Orban announced on Friday, January 10, that the Government will defer, after the promulgation of the law, the doubling of the child allowance “until financial resources are found.”

The law providing for doubling the child allowance from the current level of RON 150 (EUR 32) per month, was already endorsed by the Parliament and was submitted to the Presidency for promulgation with January 18 as the deadline for a decision in this regard.

President Klaus Iohannis intends to promulgate the law, PM Orban said, after meeting him on Friday. Iohannis himself said on Thursday that he saw no reason why he shouldn’t sign the law.

The Liberal Government led by Orban has fiercely objected to the bill, which was promoted by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in December, as the finance ministry estimated that the extra cost of higher child allowances would represent some 0.4% of the GDP and Romania is already on a big deficit.

The prime minister said that “most likely” the money for higher allowances will be allocated under the mid-year budget revision. This would allow the executive to keep the impact on the budget to 0.1%-0.2% of GDP this year.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)