FinMin Citu: I think budget will be presented in Parliament next week; no other taxes in 2020

The 2020 budget is ready, it was built on the legislation and taxes in force, and I think it will be presented in Parliament next week, Minister of Public Finance Florin Citu told Digi24 private television station on Tuesday evening. 

"The budget is ready, it will be presented to Parliament, I think next week (...) The budget was built on the legislation and the taxes in force. We're not introducing other taxes, we do not intend to introduce other taxes in 2020," said Citu. 

The minister specified that the traffic fine point will remain at the current level of 145 lei and it will not increase with the minimum salary, as the salaries of dignitaries will not increase either . 

Citu said that on Tuesday, the draft law on the ceilings of some indicators specified in the fiscal-budgetary framework for 2020 was presented to the Government and stressed that a transition from a pro-cyclical fiscal policy to a normal one is to be made, and this transition period will take about one year and a half. 

Asked whether the European Commission's acceptance for exceeding the 3pct ceiling on the budget deficit would be received, the Finance Minister replied that it is not about accepting or not, but about a procedure and discussions would be held with international partners to see how fiscal policy can be brought so that it no longer represents an element of volatility in the economy. 

At the same time, the minister reiterated that, in 2020, the economy "will be cleansed" and "will be ready for 2021, when growth will be based on investments." 

The Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) published, on Tuesday evening, the draft law for approving the ceilings of some indicators specified in the fiscal-budgetary framework for 2020, which foresees for the next year a budget deficit of 3.6pct and 3.34pct for 2021. At the same time, the ceiling for public debt is set at 45pct of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).