Romanian PM: Main Concern Is Securing Jobs, Not The Budget Def

"I am primarily concerned by how to secure people’s jobs and less by the budget deficit," Tariceanu said, during a debate at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, when asked if the government’s economic support plan, approved this week by the Cabinet, would not affect the country’s budget deficit.

 

On Wednesday, the Government approved several fiscal facilities included in a plan to help the country’s economy overcome the effects of the international financial crisis.

 

Companies that will hire people who have been unemployed for more than three months will be granted a bonus of EUR1,000 for each hire and taxpayers who pay their dues at least ten days before the deadline will get a 5% discount.

 

The government also decided not to tax revenues from interests on deposits and savings instruments starting January 1, 2009, to lower VAT by 5% for the construction of social homes, nursing homes and orphanages, to lift taxes for reinvested dividends, to up the share capital of the country’s last state-owned lender, CEC Bank, to allow it to back farmers and small and medium-sized businesses.

 

In the first nine months of the year, the consolidated budget had a deficit of 7.17 billion lei (EUR1=RON3.7938), or 1.42% of the gross domestic product, according to the Finance Ministry’s data.

 

The 2008 budget deficit target is 2.3% of GDP.