In brief

  • The 2026 budget of the Romanian Railway Authority stays at 145.79 million lei, but 1.4 million move from one line to another. Current repairs fall from 13.008 to 11.608 million lei, while the line „other expenditure on goods and services” rises from 22 to 23.4 million. Against the budget approved in April 2026, three rows change in the whole table and not one of them is on the revenue side.
  • The authority that supervises railway safety is paid for out of the operators’ charges, not out of the state budget. Of the 145.79 million lei, 125.57 million come from services provided, while 20 million, that is 13.72% of the budget, are taken from the previous year’s surplus. The revenue of the year itself covers 125.79 million, so 20 million less than the expenditure.
  • Order no. 882/2026 applies from 23 September 2026, the date of publication, to a budget year of which 99 days are left. The annex also shows the underlying data for staff costs: an average of 300 employees and average monthly gross earnings of 19,607 lei.
Act: Order of the interim minister of transport and infrastructure no. 882/2026 approving the modified 2026 revenue and expenditure budget of the Romanian Railway Authority – AFER
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 806 of 23 September 2026
In force from: 23 September 2026, the date of publication

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has amended, through Order no. 882/2026, the 2026 budget of the Romanian Railway Authority (AFER), the institution that licenses railway operators, type-approves rolling stock and certifies staff with safety responsibilities. Unlike the CFR Călători budget, where the state puts in 4.59 million lei a day as a subsidy, AFER receives no money from the state budget: it lives off the charges it collects from the very operators it supervises. The order was issued on 21 September 2026 and published two days later.

The modified budget keeps exactly the same totals as the one approved in the spring: 145,790.00 thousand lei in revenue and the same in expenditure, that is 145.79 million lei. Compared line by line with Order no. 391/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 317 of 22 April 2026, today’s act changes three rows in the whole table, and all three sit in the same expenditure group.

Article 20.02 of the budget classification, current repairs, falls from 13,008.00 to 11,608.00 thousand lei. Article 20.30, „other expenditure”, rises from 23,440.00 to 24,840.00 thousand lei, and the whole increase goes into paragraph 20.30.30, „other expenditure on goods and services”, which moves from 22,000.00 to 23,400.00 thousand lei. It is the same sum, 1,400.00 thousand lei, shifted from one line to another inside Title II, Goods and services, whose total stays unchanged at 44,818.00 thousand lei.

The legal basis invoked is Article 16 paragraph (1) letter e) of Law no. 500/2002 on public finance, together with Government Ordinance no. 14/2023 on the reorganisation of certain public institutions in the railway sector, with Article 9 paragraph (4) of Government Decision no. 370/2021 on the organisation of the ministry and with Article 5 paragraph (2) of Government Decision no. 310/2023 on the organisation and functioning of AFER. Behind the order stands memorandum no. 3.098 of 8 September 2026 of the Economic Directorate, which is not published.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is felt by anyone who had repair work to do for AFER. The sum for current repairs falls by 1.4 million lei, that is 10.76% of what had been approved in April, and stays at 11.608 million. For the network of laboratories, test rigs and buildings that the authority uses, this means work that will no longer be contracted in the last quarter, or that moves to next year.

The second effect is at the other end of the move. The line „other expenditure on goods and services” reaches 23.4 million lei, that is 52.21% of the whole goods and services title and 16.05% of the entire budget. It is 3.45 times larger than all the itemised expenditure under Article 20.01 taken together, that is supplies, cleaning, heating, water, fuel, spare parts, post and internet, which add up to 6.79 million lei. The act does not reveal what is bought with the difference.

The third effect is one of timing. The order enters into force on 23 September 2026, so the amendment applies to a financial year of which 99 days are left, that is 27.1% of the year. The quarterly breakdown of the indicators is approved by the governing board of AFER, under Article 1 paragraph (2), and that breakdown is not published in the Official Gazette of Romania.

The fourth effect has to do with the discipline of execution. Article 2 paragraph (1) says that the sums entered under expenditure are maximum limits and cannot be exceeded except in justified cases, with the minister’s approval. Paragraph (2) adds the symmetrical rule: if revenue is not collected at the programmed level, the authority may spend only in proportion to the degree to which it is realised. Since 86.13% of the budget comes from the charges collected from operators, a fall in railway activity passes straight into the expenditure of the authority that supervises it.

The fifth effect does not change, but it is worth reading, because the annex spells it out. Staff costs stay at 76.9 million lei, that is 52.75% of the budget, for an average number of 300 employees and average monthly gross earnings of 19,607 lei. Basic salaries, 64.8 million lei, give exactly 18,000 lei a month per person for 300 employees. On top of them sit 6 million lei in allowances for working conditions, 2.5 million for the reimbursement of tourism services under the collective labour agreement, 600 thousand lei in fees for the members of the governing board and 500 thousand lei in secondment entitlements. Separately, under social assistance, the budget carries 7.2 million lei in social aid in cash, that is 24,000 lei a year for every employee, the equivalent of 1.22 average monthly gross earnings.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The previous budget is the one approved by Order of the minister of transport and infrastructure no. 391/2026, issued on 20 April 2026 and published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 317 of 22 April 2026, on pages 9 to 13. There are 154 days between the two acts. The row by row comparison gives three differences, all of them in Title II.

The first: Article 20.02, current repairs, falls from 13,008.00 to 11,608.00 thousand lei. The second: Article 20.30, other expenditure, rises from 23,440.00 to 24,840.00 thousand lei. The third: paragraph 20.30.30, other expenditure on goods and services, rises from 22,000.00 to 23,400.00 thousand lei. The increase under Article 20.30 comes entirely from paragraph 20.30.30; its other paragraphs, that is protocol and representation with 130 thousand, non-life insurance premiums with 700 thousand, rents with 590 thousand and the head of institution’s fund with 20 thousand lei, are untouched, while advertising and publicity stay at zero.

The rest of the table is identical down to the decimal. On the revenue side, the 125,570.00 thousand lei from services provided, the 200.00 thousand lei of other revenue from services, the 20.00 thousand lei from fines and penalties and the 20,000.00 thousand lei taken from the previous year’s surplus are the same. On the expenditure side, staff stays at 76,900.00 thousand lei, current transfers abroad at 50.00 thousand lei, social assistance at 7,200.00 thousand lei, the sums due for the unfilled quota of people with disabilities at 450.00 thousand lei, and capital expenditure at 16,372.00 thousand lei, of which 10,355.00 for construction, 5,451.00 for machinery, equipment and means of transport and 566.00 for other fixed assets. Nor do the underlying data for staff costs change: the same 300 people and the same average monthly gross earnings of 19,607 lei.

Something else has changed, though in the drafting rather than in the figures. The April annex was headed „Revenue and expenditure budget rectified for 2026”, even though Article 1 paragraph (1) of the same order approved a budget with no qualifier at all, and Article 2 also spoke of the plain budget. In today’s order, all four places say „modified”, so the enacting terms and the annex have been brought into line.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The total does not rise. The authority asks no extra money from the operators and does not increase the sum taken from the surplus: the 145.79 million lei are exactly what they were in April.
  • The move is made inside the same expenditure title and leaves staff, social assistance and investment untouched. The 16.372 million lei of capital expenditure, that is 11.23% of the budget, are not touched.
  • The annex publishes the underlying data for staff costs, with the average number of employees, the average gross earnings and the sums taken out of that calculation. Many budgets of public institutions published in the Official Gazette of Romania have no such section.
  • The budget balances arithmetically: all 27 totals and subtotals of the annex add up, and revenue equals expenditure.
  • The rule in Article 2 paragraph (2), which ties expenditure to the actual degree of revenue collection, stays in the text after the amendment as well.

What remains a problem

  • The act is called „modified”, but it does not say what it modifies. The annex has a single column of figures, the final one, so the reader cannot learn from the order what has changed without downloading the April edition and comparing row by row.
  • The money leaves a line that has a name and lands in the least descriptive line of the budget. After the move, „other expenditure on goods and services” is the largest spending line in the budget after salaries.
  • The cut of 10.76% in current repairs comes three quarters of the way through the year, when work can barely still be contracted and carried out by 31 December.
  • The budget is not supported by the revenue of the year. Expenditure exceeds current revenue by 20 million lei, covered from the surplus of previous years, and the act does not say how much of that surplus is left.
  • Revenue from research is programmed at zero, even though the row exists in the budget classification, while fines and penalties bring in 20,000 lei a year, that is 0.01% of the budget.
  • The reasoning does not reach the public. Memorandum no. 3.098 of 8 September 2026 is the only document that explains the move, and it is not published together with the order.

Practical advice

  1. If you want to see what has been modified, download the April edition. It is Official Gazette of Romania no. 317 of 22 April 2026, with the order and the annex on pages 9 to 13, and it can be had free of charge from monitoruloficial.ro. Today’s order has no comparison column.
  2. Compare by codes, not by names. The rows are called the same in both annexes, and the only safe landmark is the chapter/article/paragraph combination in the first three columns, of the kind 20.02 or 20.30.30.
  3. Suppliers of repair work for AFER should ask in good time for confirmation of the budget available this year. The line has been cut by 1.4 million lei, and Article 2 paragraph (1) turns the sum entered into a maximum limit.
  4. The quarterly breakdown is not in the order. It is approved by the governing board of AFER, under Article 1 paragraph (2), so anyone who needs the spending calendar has to ask for the board’s decision through a public information request.
  5. Do not confuse commitment appropriations with budget appropriations. The annex gives both, row by row, and in this budget they are equal everywhere; the difference between them shows, at other institutions, commitments entered into now and paid later.
  6. If you are following the sustainability of the institution, follow row 40.10.15, the sums taken from the previous year’s surplus. This year they are 20 million lei against 125.79 million of own revenue, and a surplus is not a source that replenishes itself.

Frequently asked questions

Does this order increase the AFER budget?
No. The total stays at 145,790.00 thousand lei, that is 145.79 million lei, exactly what it was in the budget approved by Order no. 391/2026. All that changes is the allocation of 1.4 million lei between two expenditure lines.
What exactly has been modified?
Three rows. Article 20.02, current repairs, falls from 13,008.00 to 11,608.00 thousand lei. Article 20.30, other expenditure, rises from 23,440.00 to 24,840.00 thousand lei. Paragraph 20.30.30, other expenditure on goods and services, rises from 22,000.00 to 23,400.00 thousand lei. The rest of the annex is identical to the April one.
Where does AFER get its money from?
From own revenue. Most of it, 125.57 million lei, comes from services provided, that is from the charges it collects from railway operators for licences, authorisations, type approvals and certifications. To this are added 200 thousand lei of other revenue from services, 20 thousand lei from fines and penalties and 20 million taken from the previous year’s surplus. Through this act it receives nothing from the state budget.
What do the 20 million taken from the surplus mean?
They are money left unspent in previous years, which the institution is now using. Row 40.10.15 of the annex enters them under financial operations, not under current revenue. In practice, the 2026 expenditure exceeds by 20 million lei the revenue that AFER collects in 2026, and the difference is covered from the accumulated reserve.
When does the new budget apply?
From 23 September 2026. The order was published on 23 September 2026 and does not lay down a date of entry into force, and orders of the heads of specialised bodies of the central public administration enter into force on the very date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, under Article 12 paragraph (2) of Law no. 24/2000, republished. The three-day period applies to laws and ordinances, not to orders.
How many people work at AFER and how much do they earn?
The underlying data in the annex give an average number of 300 people and average monthly gross earnings of 19,607 lei per employee. Those average earnings do not include the director general’s salary, 450 thousand lei a year, nor the 2.5 million lei for the reimbursement of tourism services provided for in the collective labour agreement. Basic salaries taken on their own come to 18,000 lei a month per person.
Can AFER spend more than the budget says?
Only in justified cases and only with the approval of the minister of transport and infrastructure, under Article 2 paragraph (1). The other way round, if the revenue collected stays below the programmed level, paragraph (2) obliges it to spend in proportion to the degree to which revenue is realised.
Where can I find the full text of the budget?
In Official Gazette of Romania no. 806 of 23 September 2026, on pages 11 to 15. The annex with the table is also reproduced in full in this article, in the section with the original text of the act.

Editorial analysis

The order does something ordinary and does it correctly in arithmetical terms: it moves 1.4 million lei from one line to another without touching the total, the revenue, the salaries or the investment. The problem is not the move, it is that the act does not show it. A budget called „modified” has a single column of figures, the one that follows the modification, and the reader who wants to find out what has changed has to download the edition of 22 April and compare 221 rows. Of those 221, three are different. Nothing in the order says so, and nothing in it says why.

The second observation emerges only from comparing the two annexes, and it concerns the direction of the move. The money leaves current repairs, a line with an object, and arrives at „other expenditure on goods and services”, the line without an object. After the move, that line reaches 23.4 million lei, that is 52.21% of the whole goods and services title and 16.05% of the budget. It is 3.45 times larger than the sum of all the itemised expenditure under Article 20.01 and far exceeds the current repairs that are left. At a safety authority financed from the charges of those it inspects, the largest non-salary expenditure carries the label „other”.

The third observation concerns the moment chosen. The amendment takes effect from 23 September, when 99 days of the budget year are left. A reduction of 10.76% in current repairs made at that point is no longer a planning decision, it is the acknowledgement that the work will not be done this year. Had the sum stayed under repairs and not been spent, it would have gone back into the surplus at the end of the financial year. Moved to „other expenditure on goods and services”, it remains spendable until 31 December. The difference between the two outcomes appears nowhere in the act, but it is the only practical consequence of the move.

The fourth observation calls for a calculation and cannot be seen by reading the annex. The explanatory memorandum gives 300 employees and average monthly gross earnings of 19,607 lei. The wage bill that goes into those average earnings is 70,350 thousand lei, that is the 74,400 thousand of salary expenditure in cash, from which are deducted, as the memorandum itself requires, the director general’s salary, the fees of the governing board, the secondment entitlements and the reimbursement of tourism services. Divided by 300 employees and by 12 months, the sum gives 19,542 lei, 65 less than the published figure. The published figure comes out exactly at 299 employees. The difference changes no sum owed by anyone, so it is not an error calling for a correction, but it shows that the two sets of underlying data in the same memorandum were calculated on different headcounts: basic salaries give exactly 18,000 lei a month for 300 people, while the average earnings come out at 299.

The last observation concerns sustainability. The revenue that AFER collects in 2026 is 125.79 million lei, and the expenditure 145.79. The difference of 20 million, that is 13.72% of the budget, comes from the surplus of previous years. An institution financed from own revenue that spends 15.9% more than it takes in is eating into its reserve, and the act does not say how much of it is left. That is exactly the information the railway operators would need, because if the reserve runs out, the only source of balance left is the charges they pay.

What should be changed

  • The annex of a modified budget should have three columns. The programme approved earlier, the modification and the new programme. It would cost one table column and would spare every reader, the operators who pay the charges included, the job of comparing 221 rows with an edition five months old.
  • The preamble should say what is being modified and why. Today it refers to an internal memorandum that is not published. Two sentences in the preamble, with the sum moved and with the reason, would turn the order into an act that explains itself.
  • Above a certain threshold, the line „other expenditure on goods and services” should be detailed in a note to the annex. When a single undifferentiated line passes half of the goods and services title, the label „other” ends up covering the main part of the spending. A note with the principal destinations would settle this without changing the budget classification.
  • Sums taken from the surplus should be accompanied by the balance left. A single row under the table, with the surplus at 1 January and the one estimated at 31 December, would show whether the institution is consuming its reserve or merely rolling it over.
  • Budget amendments made in the last quarter should show what happens to the work the money is taken from. If repairs fall by 1.4 million lei, the act should say whether the work was abandoned, postponed to 2027 or carried out more cheaply. Otherwise the same figure can mean a saving or a cancellation, and the text does not reveal which.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 806 of 23 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 467 KB the act starts on page 11

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.