ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGEST May 4-10. Most important Economy & Business news by IPN
● MONDAY, May 4
PPPDA seeks questioning of minister of agriculture in Parliament
The vice president of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” (PPPDA) Alexandr Slusari filed an application by which he asks to immediately call a Parliament sitting where to question Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ion Perju. According to the MP, the minister should present an anti-crisis plan for overcoming the situation generated by the natural disasters. “In most of the districts, the situation of farmers is critical. Regrettably, the abundant and non-uniform precipitation of the last few days significantly influenced the state of autumn crops. In such conditions, tens of thousands of farmers risk going bankrupt and the food security is in serious danger, while the country will be further dependent on the import of agrifood products. Evidently, this will generate a sufficient rise in the negative balance of payments,” says the application.
“Pro Moldova” requests to declare force majeure for businesses
The parliamentary group “Pro Moldova” asks to interpret the Constitution and to declare the state of emergency as a justifiable, force majeure impediment for the business community and also for private individuals. A requisition to this effect will be lodged with the Constitutional Court following multiple complaints received from businesses and citizens who face major difficulties in fulfilling their contractual obligations in the period. In a press briefing, the group’s head Andrian Candu said “Pro Moldova” also submitted a legislative proposal concerning the amnesty on the penalties imposed by the police during the state of emergency so that those who paid the fine are paid it back within 30 days, while those who didn’t pay it are exempted from paying the fine.
Official reserves assets go up
After declining by US$144.15 million in March and the first half of April, the official reserve assets rose back to US$3.118,53 billion, according to the data available on April 24, 2020. In a response to an inquiry made by IPN, the National Bank of Moldova said the returning of the official reserve assets to a level that exceeds US$ 3.1 billion strengthens the central bank’s capacity to intervene and regulate the imbalances in the balance of payments and to diminish the excessive volatility of the exchange rate. According to the NBM, such a development is primarily due to the provision of the emergency loan for managing the exceptional epidemiological situation caused by COVID-19 by the International Monetary Fund. The loan is of 172.5 million Special Drawing Rights, which is equal to US$233.9 million.
● TUESDAY, May 5
Commercial Information Portal intended for business community launched
The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure and the Customs Service, with the support of USAID Moldova Structural Reform Program, have launched a Commercial Information Portal intended for the national and international business community (www.trade.gov.md). According to the Ministry, the portal www.trade.gov.md becomes the main source of official thematic information about the related procedures and documents needed for such activities as the import, export and transit of goods. The users of the portal could inform themselves about the customs regimes and destinations, declaring, classification and origin of goods, contingents, permissive documents, taxes for all the categories of goods, etc. All the information on the portal, including the standard forms needed for different procedures and applications, is free.
● WEDNESDAY, May 6
“Avia Invest” has debts of over 22m lei to CAA
The company “Avia Invest”, which manages the Chisinau International Airport, has an outstanding debt of over 22.3 million lei to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Therefore, the CAA on May 5 asked to start an execution case, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the institution. To recover all the debts of “Avia Invest”, a number of civil lawsuits were filed and a transaction contract between the CAA and “Avia Invest” was ultimately signed on July 5, 2019. By that contract, “Avia Invest” pledged to repay the debt to the CAA by monthly installments, according to the agreed timetable. For this April, “Avia Invest” was to transfer over 11.158 million lei to the state budget, the treasury account of the CAA. “Avia Invest” didn’t pay the installment by the set time limit. This way, the overdue debt on May was 22.348 million lei according to the transaction contract.
● THURSDAY, May 7
Avia Invest: Debts of over 22m lei represent part of penalties
The manager of the Chisinau International Airport Avia Invest said the sum of over 22 million lei presented by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as the debt of Avia Invest is actually a part of the penalties deriving from the historical debts of Air Moldova, dating from the period when the airline was under state management. In a press release published on the Facebook page of the Chisinau International Airport, it is said that Air Moldova’s debts to Avia Invest led to overdue payments to the CAA and the investor of the airport “is now obliged, in a period of profound crisis, to pay penalties due to the fraudulent management of an airline by the state”. According to Avia Invest, the debt was fully repaid to the CAA, as were a part of the penalties, and the forced execution of the outdating penalties in a period of crisis “shows at least lack of common sense” and reveals “not at all benevolent intentions” towards Avia Invest.
Firms should be protect from massive closures, WB
The unprecedented COVID-19 shock hit Moldovan firms through several channels and necessitated immediate liquidity support to protect them from massive closures. In the short run, the authorities should focus on securing medical supplies and staffing, measures to slow the spread of the virus and reduce the peak load on health systems, securing fiscal stability and access to finance, keeping the financial sector stable while ensuring adequate liquidity, shows the 2019 Enterprise Survey presented by the World Bank. According to WB specialists, although the fiscal deficit remained contained in 2019, it will expand rapidly in the wake of the pandemic. In the first quarter of 2020, collections by the fiscal service decreased by 3.6 percent y-o-y. In April, authorities adopted a set of supportive measures to counteract the pandemic with an estimated cost of 2.4 percent of GDP.
