The PNL (National Liberal party) leader, interim prime minister Florin Citu, stated on Monday that the governing programme, which is being negotiated with PSD (Social Democratic Party), must take into account that Romania is facing an excessive deficit procedure, reiterating that the Liberals are very much invested in a reform of the administrative apparatus and do not agree with the "luxury tax."
"We cannot overcome the deficit for next year. At the same time, PNL supports some very important things. Last year's investments represented at least 6pct of GDP, but we could go to 7pct. We want a reform of the administrative apparatus. We care very much about that. I have said this again and again - we won't raise taxes as long as I'm prime minister. We care a lot about that. We'll see what happens in the future. We have a country pace that we have increased, we do not want to destabilize the situation. In this context, we can also talk about increases in salaries and pensions and allowances," Citu said at the Parliament Palace.
Asked about the budgetary impact of pension and salary increases, in the context in which PSD claims that there is a buffer of 40 billion lei from which they can be covered, Florin Citu said: "At the moment we have a better budget execution than last year. The 40 billion (RON) higher revenues, which are not a buffer, are higher revenues than last year. These revenues were collected in the context in which we did not increase taxes and we digitized the economy. (...) But that buffer is to maintain the deficit on the trajectory, while we have already increased spending this year with investments, and we had other health expenses, so it's not a buffer, there are higher revenues," Citu explained.
Regarding the "luxury tax" proposed by PSD, the Liberal leader specified that PNL does not want this tax.
He said, however, that he was convinced that a solution would be found during the negotiations with PSD.
"It will be a clear governing programme and it will be a common programme that we can agree upon now and we can maintain in the future. (...) Surely a solution will be found. I hope we will have a government very soon," he added, Agerpres informs.
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