MP Igor Dodon, former Minister of Economy in the Communist Government, has criticized the 2011 Budget Bill as having multiple deficiencies, referring in particular to the provisions to reduce personnel expenses and cut the number of public employees. The Bill was presented at the Government's meeting on Wednesday. MP Igor Dodon told reporters on Thursday that the draft budget law anticipated an increase in revenues from imports, meaning Moldova will continue to have a consumption-based economy. Personnel expenses are expected to decrease by 0.7%, the number of public employees will be reduced by 8%, and the number of teachers by 7%. “This calls for the question how is Mr Filat going to propose salary raises when personnel expenses are reduced, and how he explains the reduction by 8% of the budget sector employees?”, asked Dodon. Igor Dodon added that the budget bill provided for a decrement in farm subsidies by 130 million lei. Furthermore, in 2011 it is expected that Moldova will take out foreign loans to the total amount of 1.6 billion lei, thus increasing Moldova's external debt. Lib-Dem Veaceslav Ionita, the head of the parliamentary commission for economy and budget matters, said the biggest challenge was related to the reduction of the budget deficit. “We have been heavily criticized for borrowing too much and getting the country deeper into debt. But let me remind you that the biggest debt that Moldova ever had was registered in 2009. When we came to government, we inherited a debt of 3 billion lei. By the end of the year, unfortunately, we were forced to borrow an additional amount of money. However, employing many different measures, we managed to limit the debt to 3.8 billion lei”, said Ionita, adding that the plan for 2011 was to reduce the debt to 1.5 billion lei. The Government is expected to approve the Budget Bill on Saturday before submitting it to Parliament for adoption.