On Monday evening, the Romanian Government led by Prime Minister Florin Cîţu approved the 2021 state budget draft bill in its final form. The Cîţu cabinet in fact voted twice on the draft, due to a procedural slip-up, the transindex.ro news portal noted.
This year’s draft budget law had already been approved once last Friday by the Cîţu cabinet. Subsequently, the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and former prime minister, Ludovic Orban, drew attention to the fact that the proper way for the cabinet to proceed would be to formally approve the draft law after the Legislative Council has delivered its opinion on it, even if there was no change in the text. Thus, the Cîţu cabinet adopted the draft law on state budget and social security for the second time on Monday.
The draft bill was then sent to Parliament on Tuesday morning for debate and approval, the Agerpres news agency said.
Orban, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Anca Dragu, Speaker of the Senate, are to convene a joint meeting of the House Committees to set up a timetable for the parliamentary adoption of the draft law.
According to a statement of the government, the proposed bill “represents a fair and credible budget aimed at development and reforms.”
For this year, the Cîţu cabinet foresees a 7.16 percent deficit and 4.3 percent growth in GDP.
As in most countries, the Romanian Parliament should have passed this year’s state budget law by the end of 2020, but the parliamentary elections in early December delayed the process.
Title image: The cabinet lead by Prime Minister Florin Cîţu (in the photo) voted twice on the draft state budget bill, which was sent to Parliament for approval on Tuesday.
Source: cursdeguvernare.ro
