Radio România Internațional

Tag: incentives

  • New budgetary and fiscal measures

    New budgetary and fiscal measures

    The Romanian Government approved, by emergency ordinance, a series of measures aimed, mainly, at improving budget revenue collection and at recovering a significant part of the debts of natural persons and legal entities to the state budget. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu rejected the accusations leveled by the opposition politicians that this move was, in fact, “an ordinance of austerity”, and showed that the document introduces, for the first time, bonuses for taxpayers who paid their taxes in due time. In turn, the Finance Minister, Marcel Boloş, declared that the debts of companies and individuals to the state budget exceeded, at the end of last month, 70 billion lei (about 14 billion Euros). He showed that there are 330,000 legal entities and more than 840,000 natural persons who are in this situation, and, according to the ordinance, they could benefit from exemptions and even cancellations if they comply with payment obligations by November 25.

     

    Marcel Boloş: “For legal entity taxpayers, the cancellation of accessories has been approved as a percentage of 100% of their value, accessories meaning interest, late payment penalties and non-declaration penalties, and for natural person taxpayers we have, depending on the value of the debts, fiscal facilities; so, if these debts are up to 5,000 lei, the cancellation of the accessories is 100%. Also, we have the cancellation of 50% of the main budgetary obligations, and if the debt is over 5,000 lei, then the cancellation of the main obligations is 25%.”

     

    Another provision of the document approved by the Romanian executive aims at a better use of the funds allocated for expenses in ​​public services. The finance minister explained that the investments carried out by town halls and county councils are exempt from this provision and that, moreover, the treasury loan ceiling for these projects has been increased.

     

    Marcel Boloş is back with explanations: “To support the local public authorities and the investment projects they implement, the ceiling for contracting loans from the State Treasury for the implementation of investment projects was increased to the amount of 2 billion lei. Also the government approved the increase in the withdrawal ceiling by the amount of 700 million lei and, at the same time, a category of special loans was increased by the amount of 1.5 billion lei.”

     

    The tax authority estimates that the measures approved by the government on Wednesday will reduce Romania’s budget deficit by approximately 9 billion lei (about 1.8 billion Euros) and this in the context in which the country has one of the largest budget deficits in the European Union. Economists anticipate that it will exceed 7% of the Gross Domestic Product at the end of the year. (LS)

  • Gov’t Encourages Employment

    Gov’t Encourages Employment

    The Government of Romania has taken measures to support vulnerable categories, such as the unemployed who must move town in order to find a job or those who want to return to Romania to work, and has endorsed incentives and measures designed to create new jobs. According to Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, this is for the first time that European and national funds are consistently earmarked so that they may have a concrete impact on markets and peoples living standards.



    Specifically, Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru has announced that the unemployed who decide to move town in order to get a job will receive a signing bonus of roughly 2,800 euros. The bonus will be paid in two instalments, the first half upon signing the employment contract and the second one after the first year on the new job. Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru:



    Dragos Paslaru: “We are introducing an activation bonus of slightly over 100 euros for any long-term unemployed person who takes up a job. The second element is what we call a ‘mobility package. We are basically introducing the concept of support for commuting in Romania. This employment bonus enables anybody in Romania who is jobless and decides to get a job more than 15 km away from home to receive a subsidy of 0.5 lei per km, with a ceiling of 55 lei per day, so that they may commute to work.



    In order to benefit from the activation bonus, a new employee must keep the same job for minimum 3 months. Employers will also receive subsidies, the Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru also says:



    Dragos Paslaru: The activation bonus and the mobility package are given to employees, not to companies. But there are also active measures, designed to encourage companies to hire people, and which are offered to employers. There is a 200-euro monthly bonus paid for 12 or 18 months to employers who hire young people, people with disabilities, single parents, elderly people or pensioners.



    These measures will come into force on December 1. Also, for the second time this year, the Government has allotted additional funds to the “First Home programme, which helps people buy their first home. The additional funding will be channelled primarily into the applications currently in various review and pre-approval stages, and not to new applications. The budget set aside for guaranteeing the loans taken up by Romanian citizens living abroad will be re-directed to the overall loan guarantee fund.

    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)