The Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, says that Romania needs a plan of measures to manage the budget deficit, so that money is not cut from investments. The plan is to be approved at the coalition level. In an interview for Digi24, the minister was talking about the possibility of eliminating some tax facilities.
„It is a reality. There are 5 months of budget restriction, 2.33% of GDP budget deficit, 37 billion lei, this is the reality today. We cannot sit idly by, because after 5 months, the 2.33% budget deficit is not something to play with, and precisely, since the hearings and the first days of the mandate, for two weeks – this is the second week of when I have the mandate of Minister of Finance – I focused on this plan of measures, which is to be agreed at the level of the Coalition and we can manage corethe risk of a budget deficit is high“, Bolos said in a press conference.
„It is in Romania’s interest to properly manage the budget deficit, so as not to affect investments, which are our chance for long-term development, and this is the right approach at the moment for this plan of measures to come into force and to be able to close the budget year at the level of the budget deficit target assumed by the European Commission – 4.4% of GDP“, he added.
Asked csuch measures would come into effect, the minister replied: “Dwhat we are going to finalize and we are going to see every scenario that we discussed, we also have the budgetary impact”.
„It would be unfair to tell you now measures from the plan we have in mind and then not to implement them, moreover, to induce this state of panic among taxpayers, but it is a certainty that this plan must be put in place” , the minister added.
In an interview for Digi24, Boloș said that the elimination of some tax facilities is one of the proposals he will submit to the governing coalition, in order to cover the new expenses foreseen by the Government.
„There are certain rules in tax facilities that should be common to all. We have situations where certain beneficiaries of tax facilities do not pay the social health insurance contribution. There are others who pay the contribution to private pension funds, others who do not. The proposal that we will go with and submit to the discussion in the coalition will be that of aligning the rules, which we have in the tax facilities system. We have 3 big beneficiaries: IT, agriculture and construction. And here we will try to standardize these rules of applicability. That is, we cannot discuss a category of beneficiaries of tax facilities that is treated differently from another category,” he said.
Editor : M.B.
