Draft laws on state budget and state social insurance budget for 2024 passed by gov't

  The 2024 state budget and the state social insurance budget for 2024 draft laws were approved by the government on the Thursday evening sitting, a press release by the Executive informs.At the same time, a draft law was also adopted for the approval of the ceilings of certain indicators specified in the fiscal-budgetary framework for the year 2024.The draft laws have been approved and will be sent to the Parliament with the request to be debated and adopted in the emergency procedure, the press release reads.The draft ordinance regarding some fiscal-budgetary measures in the field of public expenditures, for fiscal consolidation, for the modification and completion of some normative acts, as well as for the extension of some deadlines, was also approved.At the beginning of the Executive reunion, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu declared that the state budget for 2024 will be focused on investments, their value amounting to around 7% of GDP.He added that for next year, the government aims for an economic growth of 3.4%, "the second highest in the EU", and this means 150 billion RON more to Romania's GDP compared to this year."The social security budget that we approve today also proves that there is money both for the increase of pensions from the 1st of January with the inflation rate of 13.8%, and for the recalculation of pensions from the 1st of September. Funds are also foreseen to increase allowances and social benefits," Ciolacu assessed.The prime minister said that teachers' salaries will be increased and that there is a need for a 5% increase in the budget system, "but not for dignitaries"."Investments amount to 120 billion RON, an absolute record since 1989. We have the largest budget in history for Education, with over 21 billion RON more than in 2023. For Transport, we are allocating 27% more money to support infrastructure investment, this means an additional 6.5 billion RON for other completed highway lots, electric trains, new carriages and port modernization works. There are also major additions of between 30% and 50% for Health, including the House of Health, Environment and Development. Here we are talking about the Anghel Saligny programme, where we are allocating 3.7 billion RON more, double and more compared to 2023. (...) We are massively funding all priorities to the Government, human capital in Education, new modern units in Health, infrastructure development, environmental protection and the modernization of living conditions in rural communities. All are real needs of the country and meet the expectations of the Romanians. I repeat, there will be no tax increases in 2024, the increase of income being exclusively the effect of the economic multiplication of investments and, obviously, the fight against evasion," the head of the government also stated.   The joint session of the Parliament to debate the budget projects will start on Tuesday, from 20:00, and the final vote will be given on Wednesday.