Lazea, BNR, proposal to reduce expenses: 4-day work week with budget cuts

“The reduction of expenses would be necessary only because in the future other non-salary expenses should be increased, expenses with the provision of hospitals, with the provision of schools, with infrastructure, etc. So, even assuming that a government takes on the political act of freezing salaries and pensions, it will still not be enough to increase other non-salary expenses. There are already recent legislative expenses that have not yet been manifested this year: expenses with child allowances, with teachers, etc. ”, Specified the chief economist of the NBR during the online conference.

“National Budgets in Times of Pandemic”

Speaking of spending cuts, Lazea noted that, in his opinion, unemployment, as a result of the pandemic, it will grow a lot in the private sector.

“It just came to our knowledge then fire budget makers and add state sector unemployment to already high private sector unemployment? It’s a big question mark if you will allow it. One can imagine solutions for those on a budget, because it is not normal for the average budget salary to be higher than in the private sector“, Lazea also said.

It comes with an example solution, namely the four-day work week for civil servants, with a reduction of one-fifth in their salary.

“A solution could be, for example, a four-day workweek for civil servants, with a reduction of one fifth of salary. At least that would lead to a quasi-balance between budget salaries and private salaries. Once again , a solution would again be an entry into the budget sector in seven exits, as has been applied in the past and can still be imagined. ”

Valentin Lazea shows that based on spending cuts he does not see how in the next four years he could achieve a maximum adjustment of more than 1.5-2%. “Or we have to adjust from 9% of GDP to 2% of GDP in 2024. We need 7 points, and then of the 7 points from which we subtract 2 points, the spending cuts are still around 5 percentage points of GDP from income increases.

And here they call me best collection. Very good, best collection. I have been told that it has been a better collection for over 20 years. This means that, from day zero after winning the elections, the Government must launch bids for ANAF computer equipment, for electronic cash registers, auctions are disputed in our country, they are organized again, it lasts … ”, he stressed Lazea.

According to Lazea, from a deficit of more than 9% this year on unchanged policies next year it will move to a probable deficit of more than 8%, which would probably single us out in the negative sense.