Government approved the draft law on the state budget-2024 with a deficit of 15 billion 590 million lei.
In particular, the state budget's revenue part is expected to amount to 66 billion 632 million lei next year (+855.3 million lei or 1.3 per cent growth against the adjusted figures for 2023), the expenditure part - 82 billion 222 million lei (1.88 billion lei or 2.2 per cent reduction), while the deficit - 15 billion 590 million lei (2.7 billion lei or 14.9 per cent reduction). Finance Minister Petru Rotaru said that the elaboration of the budget-2024 took into account the prospects of economic development for the next 3 years and the macroeconomic forecast, updated in October, as well as the risks related to the external conjuncture. The main economic law for the next year was based on the new forecasts of macroeconomic indicators, agreed with the IMF experts, according to which, in 2024, the GDP is expected to grow by 3.5% - up to 312.4 billion lei, the average annual inflation - 57%, exports - by 9.8%, imports - by 8.7%, the average salary is expected to increase by 10.18% - up to 13.7 thousand lei. In the structure of state budget revenues for 2024, the biggest share will be traditionally taxes and duties - over 61.1 billion lei, or 91.7% (up by 5.02 billion lei, or 9%). In particular, taxation of legal entities will provide the budget with 9.3 million lei (+15.4%), while taxation of individuals - 2.76 billion lei (+10.1%). VAT will be the most important tax source of budget revenues. VAT revenues are planned to amount to 34.17 million lei, up by 8% compared to the same amount approved for 2023. This will be due to the growth of domestic consumption, import volumes, exchange rate, and improvement of tax and customs administration. The 2024 budget is expected to receive over 2.39 billion lei in grants, including 1.9 billion lei for budget support and about 0.48 billion lei (equivalent to $25.8 million) for projects financed from external sources. As for the expenditures, they are focused on medium-term objectives of the budgetary policy and sectoral priorities, continuation of the existing and implementation of new measures in the field of social protection, salaries in the budgetary sector, implementation of projects and measures in line with the agreements signed with development partners. About 4.4% of state budget expenditures will be covered by external resources. A total of 80 projects with external financing are to be implemented in 2024: support in the road sector - 871.7 million lei, Roads - III-V projects - 450 million lei, additional financing of the project "Emergency COVID-19 Response" - 292.7 million lei, support for higher education - 236.8 million lei, energy sector program - 223.2 million lei, etc. The draft law stipulates that the Road Fund will amount to 1 billion 655.9 million lei, the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund - 1.5 billion lei, the National Fund for Regional and Local Development - 601.5 million lei, the National Fund for Agricultural and Rural Development - 1.6 billion lei, the Vine and Wine Fund - 38.1 million lei, the National Environment Fund - 175 million lei, the Voluntary Unification of Localities Fund - 150 million lei. The government also earmarked 53.9 million lei for the financing of political parties; 2 billion lei for the financing of capital investments by budgetary bodies; 26.1 million lei for the repair/construction of sanitary units in primary, secondary and higher education institutions; 56.5 million lei for the payment of contributions to international organizations to which Moldova belongs; 170 million lei for the "First House" (Prima Casa) program. The government's Reserve Fund will amount to 150 million lei, while the Intervention Fund - 250 million lei. About 1.65 billion lei will be allocated to increase the salaries of state employees, etc. The draft law should be approved by the parliament. // 01.12.2023 - InfoMarket.
