The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Bolos, declared himself pessimistic that Romania could collect 30 billion lei for the state budget without tax increases.

Asked on Friday at a press conference organized at the Government, the official mentioned that a mix of solutions is needed between fiscal reform, spending cuts and improved collection.

„First of all, we need to see what types of measures will be agreed by the governing coalition, because depending on what will be agreed, each type of measure has a specific budgetary impact and, as we know, we will have such a plan that then deserves to be discussed. But let’s not forget that there are types of public spending with an impact, to put it this way immediately, that is, limiting some increases, or types of spending such as those regarding personnel reductions, with a budgetary impact over time. That is, until the impact is seen in the budget execution account, a period of one year, two years may pass… Realistically speaking, I find it hard to believe this (reducing spending by 30 billion lei, without tax increases, ed.), so from experience, and this is my personal opinion. We need to discuss a mix of solutions that „It means fiscal reform, spending cuts and, of course, improving collection. It is very difficult to materialize in terms of budget revenues. So, we must be very careful not to have a consistent deviation from the deficit trajectory, given the commitment we have in relation to the European Commission,” declared Marcel Bolos.

He argued that, in order to reduce spending in the budgetary sector, each category of civil servants must be analyzed.

„In my opinion, each category of public servants must be taken into account. I’ll give you an example, the health sector, which has a specific bonus system and you can’t make a decision that affects the public health system. Teachers also have a different bonus system. So, I don’t believe in this solution to the bonus issue, through a general rule, but I believe that those bonuses, as I mentioned, the one for harmful conditions without discussion, must be considered to ensure a correct use of public sector money,” said Bolos.

According to the data presented by the dignitary, Romania has a public expenditure level of over 740 billion RON, of which 164 billion RON are personnel expenses, and 222 billion RON represent assistance expenses, „expenses related to the functioning of the Romanian state, substantial, and for which a lot of balance is needed”.

AGERPRES