PSD and PNL won't vote the 2010 budget. Geoana: The budget was designed on a clientele pattern

PSD and PNL representatives confirmed on Monday, January 11, once again, that they will jot vote the 2010 budget. This is the same day that the document was subjected to the debates in the Parliament’s plenum. Mircea Geoana announced the social-democrats’ decision and accused the „clientele standard” that is allegedly at the basis of this budget.

The social-democrat leader claims that the budget project does not respond to the main issues triggered by the economic crisis and would not offer minimum resources for a good functioning of the economic sectors – agriculture, transports, investments, education and Health, according to Romanian press agency NewsIn.

PNL will not vote the budget either and will continue to hold up its own amendments, liberal vice-president Ludovic Orban announced, NewsIn quotes. „PNL decided to vote against the state budget Law. We also decided to support in the plenum all the amendments for reducing the fiscal duties which have been approved by the authorising commissions or by the budget-finance commission. I would like to recall both the amendments PNL proposed and have or have not been approved. We’re going to back them all in the plenum”, Ludovic Orban insisted.

Orban took the occasion to list the amendments: suspending the minimum tax in 2010, reducing the late pay-up penalties from 01% to 0.05%, 5% VAT for constructions and business with new constructions and the continuation of the 3% income for micro-enterprises.

According to him, some of the measures that had initial promises of support failed to be approved „because some errors occurred with our partners”. He was referring to the reduction of social insurances by 9.5%, the enforcement of the pension law – the pension standard should be 45% of the average gross income. The liberals will support a series of amendments addressing the way public money is spend on fundamental investments projects.