Romanian PM says he has four options for not doubling child allowances

The National Liberal Party (PNL) analyzes four options to sanction the law passed through the Parliament by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which doubles the child allowances in Romania, PNL leader and prime minister Ludovic Orban said on Monday, January 6, Mediafax reported.

The Liberals could challenge the law at the Constitutional Court, postpone its enforcement, or the Government could change it by taking responsibility for another bill to reverse the provisions. The fourth option is adopting a new bill to provide a “rational” increase in allowances, Orban said.

The Liberals passed an amendment in March 2019, through which the child allowances were almost doubled to RON 150 (EUR 31) per month. PNL was in opposition at that time.

After PNL removed PSD from power and installed its own Government, in November 2019, PSD passed a bill through the Parliament which doubles child allowances to RON 300 (EUR 63) per month.

All children under 18 get allowances in Romania and those under the age of 2 get a double amount.

The bill passed by PSD would thus have a significant impact on the state budget, of some 0.4% of GDP, which hasn’t even been considered by the Government when drafting the state budget for 2020, which provides an already high deficit of 3.6% of GDP.

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