Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara says authorities cannot force farmland owners to pay a tax for leaving it uncultivated, and it would be more important to enforce a system of tenant farming, though Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomitianu wants to sanction those who do not cultivate their lands, “the sooner, the better.” “One cannot force someone to cultivate a plot of land, but one can force him to keep it clean. You cannot keep a land covered by weed and plants that are detrimental to the environment. This is different from the tax on uncultivated land. (…) But I don’t think it will be necessary, because an additional two million hectares have been cultivated this year. We dropped under one million hectares of barren land in 2011,” Tabara mentioned. The Minister of Public Finance, Gheorghe Ialomitianu said Wednesday, after the Cabinet meeting, that he wants to instate very soon a tax on uncultivated farmland, and authorities are in talks with World Bank experts over this idea. “I want to do it very soon, because we wish to sanction those who do not work their agricultural land,” Ialomitianu said. Tabara, on the other hand, believes this is not a priority for the ministry, the same as a tax to sanction those who allow garbage to build up on their property.
