Moldovan PM presents report at end of mandate

Chisinau, 31 December /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Ion Chicu, Health, Labour and Social Protection Minister Viorica Dumbraveanu, Economics and Infrastructure Minister Anatol Usatii and Finance Minister Serghei Puscuta have unveiled end-of-mandate reports.  
PM Ion Chicu thanked the colleagues from the cabinet of ministers, noting that they had proved professionalism. Chicu added that the government would present a more comprehensive report in January 2021.  
„It was a difficult year for all of us; yet, Moldova managed to cover this year with dignity and fairly. We have the potential to develop, to focus on work and on less politics. We did not imagine that we could have over-collections of budget revenues even in the most optimistic scenario, which we could have in the country. I still hope that the new leadership will work without getting involved in politics and electoral campaigns,’’ Chicu said.    
Health, Labour and Social Protection Minister Viorica Dumbraveanu was the first one to come up with a report. She reviewed the increases made in the social benefits on the last period. ‘’The reexamination of pensions for 23,000 beneficiaries was carried out in two phases. The pensions were indexed two-fold for 682,000 beneficiaries. The survivor pension for children increased by 28 per cent and for the first time ever, allowances were provided in the case of the death of one of the spouses. Also, the quantum of the state monthly allocation for the war veterans grew from 100 to 500 lei. The level of the minimally guaranteed monthly income, used for at the calculation of the right to social benefit for each child, was increased from 50 to 75 per cent. The indexation of the level of minimally guaranteed monthly income grew by 4.8 per cent,’’ Dumbraveanu said.    
She added that the 2020 year had been extremely difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health system was subjected to a big pressure. Thus, decision-makers ruled to increase the salaries by 70 per cent, as well as the one-off allowance for young specialists.  
Economics and Infrastructure Minister Anatol Usatii said that, in the last year, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had decreased by 2.8 per cent. Also, the exports dropped, the domestic consumption was diminished and the imports decreased.   
Finance Minister Serghei Puscuta specified that the payment of the income tax and the local tax had been postponed in 2020, the number of taxes and contributions related to salary payments decreased and the quota of the value added tax (VAT) for the HORECA sector was reduced from 20 to 15 per cent and from 15 to 12 per cent starting from 1 January 2021. Thus, the balance of the state debt is 66.9 billion lei and the share of the state debt in the GDP is 33.2 per cent. ‘’The Public Budget revenues are over-fulfilled by 1.2 billion lei and we have a deficit of 11 billion lei,’’ Puscuta said.  
On 23 December, Prime Minister Ion Chicu informed that he resigned. Subsequently, Chicu specified that he would exercise the office of acting PM only till the end of this year.
The government led by Ion Chicu was sworn in office on 14 November 2019.
photo: moldpres.md