Extraordinary session of Senate to review the bill on reducing the CAS

Senators, convened in extraordinary session, are meeting on Monday to analyze the request of President Traian Basescu to review the draft law with respect to the 5 percent decrease of the social insurance contribution (CAS) paid by employers, Agerpres announces.

The bill should have been reviewed on August 18, but the Permanent Bureau decided to postpone talks by one week.  Following the meeting within the Senate, the bill will be sent to the Chambers of Deputies which will review it in an extraordinary session scheduled for August 26, 2014, according to Ilie Sarbu, PSD’s leader within the Senate, states the newswire.

As regards the outcome of Basescu’s call for re-examination, the President of the Senate, Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that the request could be rejected, hence the bill on reducing the CAS will be passed without any adjustments.

The decrease by 5 percent of the CAS was initially expected to be introduced in June 2014, but the measure was deferred until October, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announcing that it will come into force although the foreign partners, the IMF and the EU Commission have not approved the fiscal measure. Provided the CAS will be reduced, the Ministry of Finance anticipates a deficit of some 850 million lei for the final quarter of the year which will be covered by the existing surplus. However, President Traian Basescu declared that under the current circumstances, the measure is not feasible and will increase the budget deficit, so on July 25 he sent the related bill to the Parliament for re-examination.