RO PM Citu says 2021 budget planning will not be ready sooner than early February

Romania's Government plans to submit the 2021 budget planning to Parliament on Thursday, February 4, prime minister Florin Citu announced, G4media.ro reported.

In the meantime, the ministries will provide details about how they plan to spend the money that will be allotted to them this year.

The ministers need more time to get familiar with their institutions before drafting financial projections, Citu explained.

The past Government, headed by Ludovic Orban and having Citu as finance minister, claimed that it had already prepared the budget for 2021, but now it seems that the procedures started from scratch.

Prime minister Citu implied that he wants firm control over the budgetary execution.

"I have seen awkward practices in 2016," Citu said, quoted by News.ro, pointing to the year when the Government was headed by now junior partner Dacian Ciolos. "Projects were inked but not financed, and the money earmarked for other projects was not spent."

The prime minister said again that his Government would make no tax hike this year.

He also reiterated the medium-term target of bringing the public deficit under 3% of GDP by 2024.

A first step is bringing the gap down to 7% of GDP this year from above 9% in 2020.

(Photo: Gov.ro)