LIBERALS CHANGE THEIR MIND PNL No Longer Contests State Budget In Court

National Liberal Party (PNL) President Calin Popescu Tariceanu yesterday announced at the end of the Central Political Bureau meeting that the party would not file any contestation with the Constitutional Court against the State Budget Law recently adopted by Parliament. Tariceanu has been one of the most ardent critics of the current budget structure.

A few days ago he stated that the recently adopted budget had nothing in common with the electoral promises of the current Government or the previous budgets of the country. In his opinion, the budget - which he voted against - is unrealistic and does not include a crisis management plan. Although the Liberals have given up on the idea to contest the budget in the Constitutional Court, they have stressed they will file a number of complaints with the Abuse Committee of the Chamber of Deputies with regards to the manner in which the parliamentary debates on the draft budget took place.

"We eventually decided not to contest the budget in the Constitutional Court because we realized that would delay the enforcement of the budget and thus bear negative consequence on various budget management structures and the local administration," Tariceanu said. According to Agerpres, the Liberal leader also criticized the attitude of the vice speakers of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, both from PD-L, towards the amendments proposed by PNL to the State Budget Law, which were rejected.

In Tariceanu"s opinion, all of PNL"s amendments would have been very useful for the local communities. He criticized the majority"s reluctance to even consider the opposition"s point of view. "Maybe the debates did not take as much time as they should have. The Vice Speakers of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, both members of PD-L, did not observe the procedure applicable during the debates on several occasions," Tariceanu said.

On the other hand, Tariceanu denied rumours that the MPs representing PNL and those of the ruling coalition had made certain arrangements about the amendments. "I noticed that, unfortunately, our amendments were rejected in corpore. None of my colleagues would even think about making such arrangement individually," Tariceanu said. He stressed that none of the PNL MPs had made any deal with the Social Democrats or the Liberal Democrats.

• Next budget rectification will be negative

PNL MP Bogdan Timpau claims that the future State Budget rectification will be negative, considering that tax collection was below target in the first two months of the year. In his opinion, the budget will mot likely be rectified in April or May. According to him, budget revenue collection for the first two months of the year is equal to 60-70% of the target as many corporate taxpayers are having difficulties paying their dues. Timpau commented that the State Budget Law for 2009 was unrealistic and would further deepen the recession.