LIBERALS GO ON THE OFFENSIVE The Boc Government, as dangerous as the crisis itself

C.D.

The chairman of the National Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu, yesterday said, during the debates in the Parliament on the revision of the budget, that the current government is a source of chaos and is compounding the effects of the world crisis in Romania.

Crin Antonescu said: "We have no issue with the crisis, which is real and it does affect us, but rather with the crisis that you as a Government are generating, and which has no connection to the world crisis, but which you are nevertheless compounding. You are showing your ineffectiveness, lack of honesty and inability to find any solutions whatsoever. We are indeed in a world crisis, but we also have a Romanian crisis, a source of chaos, a lack of solutions, and you yourselves are the crisis".

The Liberal leader reminded the promises of the current governing coalition, mentioning, among other things, the 50% increase of teachers" salaries, the doubling of farmers" pensions, and the massive tax cuts.

"You made those promises even though you knew about the crisis and that its effects would reach us", said Crin Antonescu addressing to the Social-Democrats and the Democratic-Liberals, Agerpres said.

The chairman of the National Liberal Party reminded the governing parties that of the budget cuts of 24% for agriculture, 9.1% for defense, 5.6% for education, 4.2% for administration and internal affairs, whereas the only ministries that were spared the budget cuts were the ministries of Tourism and Communications.

Antonescu also criticized the Government for taking out the IMF loan, saying that the latter is the one actually governing Romania, as the government is incapable of doing so.

Crin Antonescu said: "You"ve given up on governing Romania, because you are incapable of doing it, the IMF is doing it in your place. We think Romania could have found other economic solutions for coping with these times of crisis, but I now realize just what would happen if the IMF weren"t keeping you in a leash. Even so, you"re proving that you don"t know what to do even within the boundaries that the IMF has set for you".

Liberal Crin Antonescu also replied to the statements of Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea, who said that the governments lead by Călin Popescu Tăriceanu revised the budget 13 times themselves.

Antonescu admitted the latter was true, but he added that unlike the budget revisions made by the current government, the ones made by the previous government were made to actually increase the various allocated budgets.

"You"d better not come up with a new budget revision and say the IMF made you do it, because Mr. Boc was overjoyed that the IMF imposed no conditions, they just gave us the money, a rather large debt too, even exceeding a little the foreign debt Romania had under Ceauşescu", Antonescu said in closing.

• Tăriceanu: "The new tax regulations will generate tax evasion"

On the other hand, the leader of the parliamentary group of the NLP from the Chamber of Deputies, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, who attended the meetings, said that the new tax policies lower the recovery chances of Romania"s economy, as they will cause tax evasion to rise.

Călin Popescu Tăriceanu explained: "The budget revenues which were inflated for the first budget draft had to be revised. Unfortunately, this burdensome tax system, - for large companies, and small and medium enterprises alike - will only cause an even bigger drop of budget revenues and therefore will make the implementation of this budget revision that the Parliament unfortunately voted for today. No one should harbor any illusions that the lump sum tax and other similar steps will increase state budget revenues by one single leu. The budget revenues will actually shrink, tax evasion will rise and this will undermine Romania"s chances to recover".

The liberal deputy also said that the fear of the government that the budget deficit might increase is not justified:

Tăriceanu provided the example of the United Kingdom, which he said had a budget deficit of 12%, exceeding Romania"s 4.6% forecasted budget deficit.

Călin Popescu Tăriceanu said: "The British are members of the European Union as well, and they have to obey the same rules as us, but they are not concerned, because they realize that in times of economic crisis, if you do not make the means for helping the economy recover readily available, you will only make the effects of the crisis last longer. Unfortunately, I am afraid this is what"s going to happen in Romania with this fearful government, always on the wait for someone to give it a push, be it the International Monetary Fund or the European Commission".