Moldova: Access to subsidies for drought-affected farmers has been facilitated.
They will be able to get help from the state even if they have debts to the budget. This is provided for by amendments to the Law on the principles of subsidizing the development of agriculture and rural areas, which the parliament adopted on Friday in the second reading. Thanks to the approved changes, as an exception, farmers with debts to the state budget will also be able to receive subsidies this year. The proposed amendments are intended to give the government the power to approve the payment of subsidies to applicants whose activities are consistent with measures to stimulate agricultural lending by commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions. It is also proposed to cancel for the 2020-2021 period the obligation to provide certificates confirming the absence of arrears in taxes and duties to the national public budget in order to receive subsidies. “To ensure Moldova’s food security, it is vitally important to continue supporting agricultural producers, to find new solutions to partially cover the costs incurred for the maintenance of agricultural holdings, including reimbursing the interest rate on loans received in 2020-2021,” the authors of the bill noted. According to them, the bill was elaborated in the context of a serious crisis in agriculture that arose in 2020 and was caused by natural disasters in the agricultural sector, including a severe drought. // 26.03.2021 - InfoMarket.
