Declarații ale premierului Marcel Ciolacu la începutul ședinței de Guvern

Marcel Ciolacu: Good evening! What matters is to have a good budget next year. We will make a budget - at night like thieves. I would like to congratulate Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova for the European Council's decision to open accession negotiations and I also would like to particularly congratulate Georgia for having been granted candidate status.
Today, we adopt a state budget for 2024, one based on investments, of nearly 7 percent of GDP. Next year, investments will contribute by half to economic growth, and the investments will grow double the consumption. This is the key to Romania's development. We had lengthy discussions, sometimes heated discussions, and we worked with the entire governmental team. I would like to thank the Finance Minister for all the efforts made during the six months, as we know how we had to manage this situation throughout this period. We aim at a 3. 4 percent economic growth, the second highest in the EU. This means 150 billion lei more to Romania's GDP compared to this year. The social security budget that we approve today proves that there is money for the increase of pensions from January 1st with an inflation rate of 13.8% and for the recalculation of pensions from September 1st! Funds are also foreseen to increase allowances and social benefits. As we promised, we are increasing the teachers' salaries and there is the money needed for a 5% increase in the budget system - not for dignitaries. Investments amount to 120 billion lei, an absolute record since 1989. We have the largest budget in history for Education, with over 21 billion lei more than in 2023. For Transport, we are allocating 27% more money to support infrastructure investments. This means an additional 6.5 billion lei for other completed highway lots, electric trains, new carriages, and port modernization works.
There are also major additions, between 30 and 50% for Health (including CNAS - National Health Insurance House), Environment, and Development. Here we are talking about the Anghel Saligny Program, where we are allocating 3.7 billion lei more, double and more compared to 2023! There is an extra 10 percent earmarked to complete past investments.
We are massively funding all government priorities: human capital in education, new modern health units, infrastructure development, environmental protection, and modernization of living conditions in rural communities. All are the real needs of the country and meet the Romanians' expectations.
I repeat, there will be no tax increases in 2024, the income increase being exclusively the effect of the economic multiplication of investments and, obviously, the fight against evasion. I have higher expectations from the Tax Administration and the Customs in 2024, to better carry out their responsibilities, with the appropriate digital instruments they have at present and will have in the next period, we are referring to e-invoicing, e-transport, and e-seal.
Furthermore, we have on the agenda decisions such as amendment of the Customs Code, adoption of the Antifraud Strategy, and a new digitalization project at the Finance Ministry. The cumulated effect should be the fight against evasion and better budget collection. We have a sustainable budget, investments of over 7 percent of GDP, larger than the budget deficit scheduled at 5 percent, and inflation will continue to decrease. We have all seen that it is already 6.7 percent in November. Our target for 2024 is for it to drop below 5 percent, half of the value registered at the time I took office.
Meanwhile, we continue to reduce state expenditure. This week, we discussed the reorganization of six Ministries, next week, we will continue with the rest. In the end, there will be fewer institutions, with single points of approval of documents, thus cutting through the red tape. Our 2023 goals must be met as well.
Tomorrow, we submit the request for payment number three of the NRRP, and also the last statements for the European money from the exercise, which ends at the end of the year, domestically, we respect what we promised to the local administrations. Today, we allocate the money for decentralized expenditure, at the level of communes, cities, and municipalities.
We eventually addressed the minimum wage for 2024, which will certainly increase. Our proposal is 3,700 lei from July 1, to ensure six months of predictability for the business sector. Until then, we keep the incentive of 200 lei tax exempt from the minimum gross salary.
This budget, hopefully voted in Parliament before Christmas, will allow us, in 2024, to invest unprecedented amounts. Lets build Romania. Thank you!

Source: Gov