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The opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) will lodge this week in Parliament a bill under which child allowances will be raised to the level adopted in 2020, namely from 214 lei to 300 lei for children aged 2 to 18, and from 427 lei to 600 lei for children under 2 years old or for those with disabilities, PSD Deputy Chair Gabriela Firea said Tuesday.
"We are lodging this week in Parliament a bill that would have the cynical government to immediately raise the allowances to the level adopted in 2020, namely from 214 lei to 300 lei for children aged 2 to 18 and from 427 to 600 lei for children under 2 years old or for those with disabilities. What more can be said about the decision of those in power to cancel the increases in child allowances? Sad! Citu and Orban promised before the elections that they will phase in in five installments the doubling of the allowances adopted by PSD, they are now announcing cancelling two of them, claiming that they do not have 2.1 billion lei for children, but they allocate under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) 2.9 billion lei for one of their party sponsors. Citu and Orban are stealing over 500 lei from the pocket of every child between 2 and 18 years old and over 1,000 lei from those under two years old or with disabilities," Firea wrote on Facebook.
She added that the Senate majority of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) adopted with amendments a law approving Government Emergency Ordinance 123/2020 under which the Orban government, with then Finance Minister Florin Citu Minister of Finance decided to double child allowances but gradually.
"With the changes made, the governing coalition has cancelled the granting of installments three and four of the original timetable. Specifically, the raise installments provided for July 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022 no longer apply, but there is a promise that all overdue installments (three, four and five) will be awarded from July 1, 2022," wrote Firea.
She added that Labour Minister Raluca Turcan has just confirmed that the Citu Government has not included in the national budget the money for the second installment of the raise planned for July 1.
The next increase in child allowances will happen on January 1, 2022, as is the amendment to the law adopting the ordinance, PNL national leader Ludovic Orban said on Monday evening.
"The coalition remains committed to doubling the allowances according to the law. We have set to increase the allowances. The next increase will be on January 1, 2022, as is the amendment to the law passing the ordinance passed by the Senate and is being debated in the Chamber of Deputies. (...) If the law is challenged in court, the government must be prepared to issue an emergency ordinance," Orban said at the end of a meeting of the ruling coalition.
AGERPRES .
