On Wednesday, the Government will approve a program to cut back arrears in state companies by RON 2 billion and one of the factors in this respect will be small companies with historical debt entering insolvency and liquidation, Liviu Voinea, Minister Delegate for Budget, and the PM announced. “There are several small companies – none of the larger ones – that have historical debt and will enter insolvency and liquidity, eventually,” Ponta said. In turn, Liviu Voinea noted the private sector has debts four times higher than state companies.

State companies in debt do not affect competition because they are generally active in economically restructured fields, Ponta said in response to reporters, when asked to comment on state companies with historical debt.

The monthly net average wage will go up by at least 5 percent in 2014 and 2015, and average monthly pensions will exceed EUR 200 this year and experience a 4.5 percent increase next year, the Government report on last year’s economic results and Romania’s objectives for 2014-2015 reveals. A 12.5 percent increase in the minimum wage has already been scheduled, meaning the value will reach EUR 200 this year.

Government plans also include cutting back the unemployment rate by 5.5 percent in 2015, creating 100,000 new jobs in 2014 and 2015, maintaining the decrease in the number of people at risk of poverty (ca. 200,000 per year), cutting back the cash deficit from 2.5 percent of GDP in 2013 to 2.2 percent in 2014 and 1.4 percent in 2015, and maintaining the current account deficit at 2 percent of GDP. Between May 2012 and November 2013, Romania gained 80,000 stable jobs, whereas Italy lost 172,000, and Spain 674,000, the report notes further.

The differentiated tax for natural persons will most certainly not be introduced this year, nor will the solidarity tax for high incomes, unless USL reaches a unanimous decision, PM Victor Ponta said.

In the 2014-2016 fiscal and budget strategy approved last year by the Government and Parliament, the chapter on ‘Tendencies for the Main Fees and Taxes in 2014-2017’ specifies the objectives are “to introduce the differentiated tax for wage incomes with fiscal deductibilities – 8 percent, 12 percent, and 16 percent ratios, which will be set according to wage grids, and to cut back CAS by 5 percent as of July 2014, the latter of which, through additional measures, will have a neutral impact on the budget.”

 

On a change of topic, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced he had another discussion with President Traian Basescu concerning the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement, during which it was decided the Government would send him the document for approval on Wednesday and the President would take a stance on the issue. (source: nineoclock.ro)