Interim President Ilie Bolojan on Monday said Romania has been spending more than it could afford for many years, suggesting that the solutions in this case are reducing operational costs or increasing taxes and duties.

„We have been spending more than we could afford for many years. We have taken large loans. Consider that last year we took about one billion euros in loans weekly to ensure some budgetary balances. (…) And this meant that the interest on these loans will increase year by year, and regardless of which government will be in power next year, in two or three years, it will not be able to escape this reality. (…) We have two or three options. Either we reduce our operating expenses, or we increase taxes and duties to offset the deficits, let’s say, from the budget, or we do both, and the reduction in expenses will be done in a form that I have always supported,” Bolojan told Antena 3 CNN private television station, explaining that cutting staff expenditure can be done after a thorough analysis of how activities can be carried out with less personnel without affecting operations.

He said that action must be taken with a certain „sense of urgency.”

„It will be an effort of one year, one and a half years, maybe two years to correct the budgetary deficits a bit and to create the conditions to relaunch our country,” added Bolojan.

The interim president opined that the priority should be optimising spending and combating tax evasion, not increasing the tax burden, which should be the last resort, applied in extreme situations.

He was asked where the most unjustified spending occurs. Bolojan responded that, in his opinion, action should be taken in many state-owned companies.

AGERPRES