December 23 (SeeNews) - Romania's government on Monday assumed responsibility before parliament for the 2020 budget bill in a move aimed at ensuring a fast-track approval before the end of 2019, prime minister Ludovic Orban said.
"We chose to go on with this procedure because there is no other way to adopt the budget bill by the end of the year," prime minister Ludovic Orban said in a televised statement broadcast by Digi24.
The budget bill is based on projections for economic growth of 4.1% and cash deficit equivalent to 3.59% of gross domestic product (GDP).
According to Romania's constitution, a bill for which the government takes responsibility before parliament can be passed only if the cabinet is not dismissed through a no-confidence motion filed in the following three days. If the bill passes, it must then be promulgated by president Klaus Iohannis.
The move was criticized by opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD), which will seek the opinion of the Constitutional Court on the matter.
"There is no precedent in Europe for a democratic government to approve a budget without debates in parliament. Since Ceausescu, Romania has never seen such a thing," PSD chairman Marcel Ciolacu said in a televised statement broadcast on Digi24. "Orban will go down in history as the only prime minister who has allowed such a thing, not only in Romania, but in the entire democratic Europe."
According to Ciolacu, PSD is considering to file a censure motion if other opposition parties join it.
GDP is expected to grow to 1.129 trillion lei ($236 billion/212 billion euro) next year, the budget bill text shows.
An average exchange rate of 4.75 lei per euro and a net monthly average monthly salary of 3.324 lei is projected in the draft.
Average inflation is forecast at 3.1% in 2020.
The budget projects cash deficit at 3.59% of GDP, while the deficit under the European System of Accounts (ESA) standards is forecast at 3.58% of GDP. The ministry aims to narrow the gap to 1.94% by 2023, in order to return to the deficit target of below 3% envisaged in the Maastricht Treaty, the buget draft reads.
According to the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992, the ratio of the annual general government deficit relative to GDP at market prices must not exceed 3% at the end of the preceding fiscal year.
Budget revenues are projected at 360.14 billion lei, or 31.89% of GDP, while expenditures are forecast at 400.69 billion lei, or 35.48% of GDP.
Investment spending is seen at 50.7 billion lei in 2020, or 4.5% of GDP.
(1 euro = 4.7716 lei)