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The draft of the 2022 State Budget Law obtained exclusively by Economedia foresees a strong increase at the Ministry of Transport, the main ministry in charge of investments. Recall that the government has pledged a record 7% of gross domestic product (GDP) for investment this year, with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă talking on Friday about allocating the largest investment budget in the last 30 years, in terms of the amounts allocated.
The budget of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure increases by 20%, on budget appropriations, to 17 billion lei. A stronger increase, however, is seen in commitment appropriations, to 51.23 billion lei from 31.57 billion lei. Specialists consulted by Economedia claim that these increases represent money from European funds, in the context in which Romania has started to receive the amounts from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Several segments of the A3 Transylvania motorway are in preparation or under construction in 2022. Part of the Craiova-Pitești expressway is also expected. A section of the Bucharest Ring Motorway (A0) is also possible. Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu also promised that investment contracts worth almost 10 billion lei will be signed next year. An important objective of the PNRR is the Moldova motorway, with the contractors for three sections between Ploiesti and Buzău to be chosen next year.
The Ministry of Development, Public Works, and Administration benefits from the largest budget increase (on the state budget), to 64 billion lei, from the execution of 26 billion lei in 2021. The increase comes as the government has foreseen a 242% increase to 56.8 billion lei in commitment appropriations. Budget appropriations, however, decrease by 25% to 7.3 billion lei. It should be recalled that in 2022 investments will start under the Anghel Saligny program, which provides for a budget of 50 billion lei over the next five years.
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The budget appropriations represent the current execution of the budget, expenditure and payments on account of existing commitments, while the commitment appropriations, relating to the multiannual execution of the budget, are expenditures that can be committed for future years.
The Ministry of the Environment’s budget also increases by almost 20% to RON 2.3 billion in budget appropriations, while RON 5.2 billion in commitment appropriations.
The Ministry of Labour has a budget of 56 billion lei in budgetary appropriations, while a further 56.69 billion lei are foreseen in commitment appropriations. Overall, the budget increases by about 6% compared to the 2021 execution.
For the Ministry of Finance a budget of almost 6 billion lei is foreseen on budgetary appropriations, a decrease of 14% compared to 2021. A further 6 billion lei is planned for commitment appropriations.
The Ministry of Justice has a budget of 5 billion lei on budget appropriations, along with another 6 billion lei on commitment appropriations, and the Ministry of Investment and European Projects will have a budget of only 2 billion lei on budget appropriations, down 20% from 2021. 8 billion lei are planned for commitment appropriations.
For the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, a budget of 23.7 billion lei is foreseen for budget appropriations – an increase of 3% and almost 23.6 billion lei for commitment appropriations – an increase of 20%.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has a budget of 23 billion lei in budget appropriations, an increase of 13% (plus 24 billion lei in commitment appropriations), while the Ministry of National Defence foresees 23 billion lei in budget appropriations and another 50 billion lei are commitment appropriations (in 2021 there were none), most likely for military procurement.
At the Ministry of Education a budget of 29 billion lei on budgetary appropriations is foreseen, up 6%, take another 29 billion lei are commitment appropriations.
The budget of the Ministry of Health foresees 24 billion lei in budget appropriations and 31 billion lei in commitment appropriations.
Overall, the commitment appropriations in the 2022 budget increase by 45.46% to 412 billion lei, compared to the execution of 283 billion lei in 2021. Budget appropriations amount to 294 billion lei, up 3.9% on 2021.