Arrears in subsidies for 2016 paid off in Moldova

Chisinau, 4 April /MOLDPRES/ - The Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry (MAIA) and the Agency of Interventions and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) have informed that the arrears in subsidies for 2016 were paid off to agricultural producers till late last March.  

A press release by MAIA’s information and media communication service reads that the applications for subsidization, which have remained without financial coverage since early 2017, amounted to 330 million lei for 2,645 applications. In 2016, over 4,500 applications for subsidization with a gross value of 640 million lei were recorded in all.    

Under the State Budget Law, the size of the subsidization fund for 2016 stood at 700 million lei, of which external sources worth 380 million lei within the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development. Of all the sum, in late 2016, about 230 million lei was used to pay off the debts and make payments for about 1,640 applications, which were fully paid.  

After the entrance into force of the State Budget Law for 2017, AIPA resumed the process of payment of applications for 2016, which remained financially uncovered. The Agency of Interventions and Payments in Agriculture said that it had transferred about 560 million lei for 4,300 applications on subsidization last year in all. During the consideration of files on subsidization, irregularities worth about 50 million lei were discovered in approximately 216 files, which accounts for 4.8 per cent of all the files submitted for subsidization.   

MAIA reiterates that, given that the approval of the budget law for 2016 came with delay, the process of reception of applications on investments’ subsidization started as late as on 5 August 2016 and lasted till 31 October 2016.  

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)