On May 14, 2020, the Institute for Rural Initiatives (iRi) in partnership with the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE) organized an online working session with the participation of mayors, secretaries of local coalitions of Gaidar, Baurci, Tomai, Vulcanesti, Ceadir Lunga, and the representative of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Moldova.
The main objective of the meeting was to analyse the problems faced by the partner localities in the framework of My Budget programme, as well as the impact caused by the effects of the COVID-19 virus on local budgets.
“The pandemic has affected all of us, but most of all the entrepreneurs and farmers in the community – there is a very high risk that they will not be able to pay their taxes, so the local budget will be badly affected. The income of the municipal companies has also decreased, the residents of the village have not been paying for water services for 2 months.” – Galina Capsomun, the secretary of Gaidar Mayor’s Office, Ceadir Lunga district.
At the moment the budget of Gaidar Mayor’s Office is affected by about 0.3 million lei. This state of affairs prevents or may make it impossible to implement the socio-economic development plan of the village for 2020 as planned.
“The town of Vulcanesti is already facing a budget deficit. The amount needed to balance the budget amounts to 550-600 thousand lei.” – Mr. Victor Petrioglo, the Mayor of Vulcanesti.
Mr. Nicolai Carapirea, the Mayor of Baurci village, raised a very serious problem of non-payment of taxes by the local residents, which worsens the state of the local budget.
Unfortunately, the infection rate in the town of Ceadir Lunga has increased for the last two weeks. There are 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there is a risk that the town will be closed with full quarantine restrictions. The Municipality of Ceadir Lunga is planning to freeze some socio-economic development projects and reallocate resources to cover the costs of overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.
Things are better in Tomai. From the reserve fund they still have a balance of 60 thousand lei – an amount, which according to the local administration will be sufficient to overcome the crisis caused by COVID-19. This is actual if the situation does not worsen.
“We have two municipal enterprises, the activity of which has been affected very little, and this is very good news. We also intend to continue to support local entrepreneurs in overcoming the crisis created by COVID-19.” – Mr. Feodor Topciu, the Mayor of Tomai.
Natalia Sclearuc, the Head of the Budget Policy and Budget Synthesis Directorate at the Ministry of Finance, referred to the fact that the state budget is incurring losses of 6.5 billion lei due to the effects caused by COVID-19, and also told that the state takes efforts to provide aid to communities to cover the deficits created in local budgets.
Thus, Mrs. Sclearuc mentioned about the transfers to be made to municipalities, a measure that comes to support LPAs in order to cushion the budget deficit crisis created by the losses caused by the effects of COVID-19.