Moldovan government plans to adopt regulations on the provision of compensation under the Prima Casa (First House) program this week.
Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita announced this at a government meeting on Monday. Finance Minister Dumitru Budianschi said that this document is already prepared for review and has been submitted for opinions on it. The head of the Cabinet called for the draft regulations to be published today so that citizens, banks and all interested parties could familiarize themselves with it and know what compensations the state will pay. "We announced them earlier, but until the document is adopted, citizens do not know how to act. Therefore, I ask, first of all, to publish the document, and secondly, to ensure its urgent approval, so that already this Wednesday we could include it in the agenda of the government meeting," said Natalia Gavrilita. As it was reported earlier, Moldovan authorities are planning to partially compensate the increase of interest rates on mortgages for young families and low-income people, so that people do not feel the increase of this rate. It is planned that this compensation will be granted to young families and citizens with small incomes, who decided to buy a home under the Prima Casa program. On 1 July, banks raised the rate on mortgage loans under Prima Casa by 5.35 percentage points, which was associated with an increase in the base rate by the National Bank. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita urged the government to study the situation with mortgage loans and take measures to help low-income payers. Earlier, the parliament adopted in the first reading a bill limiting the increase in the interest rate on loans under the Prima Casa. In particular, MPs approved amendments to Article 6 of the Law on Certain Measures to Implement Prima Casă, according to which, for loans granted under the state program, the interest rate increase may not exceed 4 percentage points once every 6 months and more than 6 percentage points (p.p.) over a period of 12 months. It should be noted that the interest rate on loans granted under the Prima Casa program increased by 5.35 p.p. from 7.37% to 12.72%. As a result of the measure proposed by the Government, the interest rate increase will be reduced by 1.35 p.p., or by about 1/4 of the applicable increase, in accordance with the initial conditions established by the program. According to Economy Minister Sergiu Gaibu, the proposed instrument reduces the increase in monthly payments by about 65%. The bill must still be approved in second reading. The law will take effect from the date of publication in Monitorul Oficial (the Official Journal of Moldova), and will also apply to loans granted before its entry into force. At the same time, the government is studying other measures and tools to support recipients of mortgage loans under this state program. It should be noted that the decision of the Emergency Situations Commission of 13 July limited the maximum annual interest rate on loans Prima Casă: from 1 July to 31 December 2022, its amount cannot exceed 11.37%. Lending banks are obliged to recalculate within 10 days the monthly interest rates for Prima Casă loans and to update the repayment schedule starting from 1 July. // 25.07.2022 - InfoMarket.
