Holiday vouchers for employees in the private sector to cost Romania's budget 0.42% of GDP

The leader of the Social Democrat (PSD) caucus in the Senate, Radu Oprea, said on March 21 that the holiday vouchers for the 4.2 million employees in the private sector, proposed by a draft bill currently under debate, would have a budgetary impact of about RON 6 bln (EUR 1.2 bln), or 0.42% of GDP, G4media.ro reported.

On a more optimistic note, Liberal (PNL) MP Eugen Tapu-Nazare stressed that this measure would turn out to be an investment resulting in the Gross Domestic Product increasing by at least 1%.

Lawmakers of the ruling coalition's party decided that starting in 2024, a super-electoral year, the state will distribute holiday vouchers to all employees, including those in the private sector, "such as to reduce discrimination."

A group of lawmakers from the ruling parties in Romania drafted a bill by which all the employees in the country, including those in private companies, would be extended from the state budget holiday vouchers starting in 2024.

"We believe that this mechanism [that exists in the public sector] can be extended for those approx. 4.2 million employees in the private sector, so that they can benefit from vacation vouchers financed from the state budget, in the amount of RON 1,450 per year, out of the amounts that they already contribute in the form of income tax and/or social insurance contributions," reads the memorandum drafted along with the bill.

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