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| THE PROGRAM AND PRIORITIES OF THE FUTURE GOVERNMENT 17/12/2008 |
| (2008-12-17) |
| Last updated: 2008-12-18 15:21 EET |
The 16% flat tax, with discounts for people of low income, a 5% VAT for basic foodstuffs, an increased VAT of 25% for luxury items, raising the gross minimum salary to around 150 Euro starting January 1st 2009, and doubling the child welfare allocation in the second half of next year; these are all only a few of the promises that the future government led by Liberal Democratic party president Emil Boc will submit to Parliament on Monday to be mandated for the next four years.
The aims of the governing coalition made up of the Liberal Democrats, a right wing, pro-presidential party, and the Social democratic and Conservative alliance, leaning left, do not stop here. Laid out in 29 chapters, they range from the ambitious aim of building 1,200 km of highway by 2012 to recovering Romania’s national treasury from Moscow, from reducing the number of different taxes and levies to restructuring public spending. The future allies want to allocate a serious portion of funds to social protection and investment. Another priority is furthering reform in justice, education and health.
The platform’s writers claim that this is a program focused on management of the economic crisis, containing important social protection measures, built on principles and directions that were generated by projects from both political bodies. All these against the background of a significant economic growth of 3.5% and a budget deficit of a maximum of 2.5% of the GDP.
“The new government has designed a governing platform to satisfy everyone, written in vague terms, and having fantasised or contradictory aims with no financial backing”, writes the daily Ziua, quoting financial analyst Bogdan Baltazar. He added that “financial resources are insufficient to cover their promises. A budget deficit of 2.5% and an inflation rate below 5% would portray a certain balance, at first sight. But, if we look at the promises, which are now becoming concrete measures, we see that they exceed the resources to be collected”.
The daily Evenimentul Zilei also notes that “the governing platform also has poor economic foundation, especially in this crisis context. The platform is just dust in the eyes of Romanians ahead of the presidential elections next year”. The publication quotes business people who believe that quote “the plan is very generous and optimistic, without specifying where the money is to come from”. They further quote representatives of the main union federations, who are rather reserved. Economists interviewed by the daily Cotidianul believe that “the platform did not take into account the crisis expected to hit Romania next year.
According to them, “we have a platform with a lot of gaps. It is a political platform, not an economic one, because it ignores the context we are in”. Romania Libera and Ziarul Financiar say that the platform is more typical of the social democrats, while the liberal democrats have only managed to squeeze in the 16% flat tax rate. The titles speak for themselves: “The Boc government pulling over on the left”, or “Romanians have voted the right and got themselves a left wing platform”, an allusion to the announcement made about the victory of the right made after the elections by Emil Boc, who in the end opted to build the executive together with a left wing party, with the liberals staying in the opposition.
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