UPDATE1 Parliament: Budget revision, passed with PSD's amendment on 40% increase in pension point

The plenary session of Parliament passed, on Tuesday, the budget revision for 2020 with the Social Democratic Party's (PSD) amendment regarding the increase in the pension point by 40%.

There were 242 votes in favor, 147 against and 11 abstentions.

The parliamentarians decided, at the proposal of PSD, to repeal the article according to which the pension point was increased by 14%, thus keeping in force the law of the public pension system which provides for a 40% increase.

Another passed PSD's amendment refers to the increase by 1 billion lei of the amounts distributed to the administrative territorial units, and for the county residence municipalities an additional amount of 500 million lei is allocated, which will be distributed equally, regardless of the political affiliation of the local administration.

Also, at the proposal of PSD, it was decided to supplement by 5.635 million lei the budget of the Chamber of Deputies, for the purchase of equipment necessary for parliamentary offices in the territory, at the change of the legislature, and to supplement by 67 million lei the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture for financing the national anti-hail and precipitation increase program.

At the same time, it was approved to increase as of this year the basic salaries for teaching staff, as provided by law, supplementing the budget of the Ministry of Economy by 400 million lei, for the Start-Up Nation program, and the budget of the State Secretariat for Cults by 20 million lei for the continuation of the works on the Nation Salvation Cathedral.

The parliamentarians dropped, at the proposal of Hungarian Democratic Party (UDMR), the provision introduced in the report of the specialized committees, according to which "the ceiling on public debt, according to the EU methodology, for the end of 2020, is 40% of GDP".

Parliament also adopted, with 246 votes "for", 142 "against" and 16 abstentions, the revision of the state social insurance budget for 2020, with the PSD amendment ensuring the enforcement of Law 127/2019 on the state pension system providing for a 40% increase in the pension point.

The Liberals have announced that they will challenge with the Constitutional Court the draft budget amendments passed by Parliament.