The year 2024 is an electoral year with a fabulous stake. Presidential, parliamentary, European parliamentary and local elections will take place. In this context, the coalition leaders compete in populist measures, effectively throwing money at the population.
In the context where approximately 1.6 million Romanians are active in the labor field on the minimum wage in the economy, they represent a very important stake in the elections. You increase their pocket money, the chances of them voting for you accelerate. Although it has been proven several times in the past that such a measure is destructive for the business environment and patrons, actually bringing more money to the state budget than to ordinary Romanians, the economic particularities are less important.
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What’s next for Romanians with the minimum wage in the economy
The pension law that will bring fabulous increases for Romanian pensioners in 2024 was not even voted well, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also addressed the precarious financial situation of those with the minimum wage in the economy. The Head of the Executive has proposed that next year, depending on the budget execution, lower the labor taxation for those who have the minimum wage in the economy.
“I wish that next year, depending on the fiscal measures taken and we also see the fight against evasion, we will try to start lowering labor taxation for those with the minimum wage in the economy. That is actually and rightly the big challenge. We will see the budget execution and based on that we will decide how we will proceed. I believe that the real challenge next year will be this decrease in labor taxation”, said Ciolacu, quoted by Agerpres.
Read also: Populism from pension increases, a “financial tsunami”. How Romanians will suffer, the warning of the Pension House
Taxes in Romania in 2024
Although there is no scenario in which the 25 billion lei needed to increase pensions will come out of the ground in 2024 other than by increasing taxes in our country, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has given assurances that this will not happen. As a reference, even BNR officials drew attention to inevitable tax increases.
“We promised very clearly that we will not come up with new taxes, so we will not go in the mirror with capital taxation. I am convinced that this will be done with the fiscal reform passed in PNRR, not by Ciolacu. I didn’t know, neither did you. (…) And to tell you one more thing: I, as Prime Minister of Romania, also gave the PNRR to be made available to me. Does not exist. If you have heard something like this before: the PNRR project does not exist in the Romanian Government. Such people took care of your money”, said the prime minister.
