The Government will continue talks with International Monetary Fund and European Commission representatives over June 19 – 30 in Bucharest, and the Romanian authorities hope the current arrangement will successfully wrap up in September, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici (photo) said on Friday.
Asked if the IMF representatives agreed with the VAT cut from 24 to 20 percent as of January 1, 2016, the FinMin said that the experts wanted to see how the measure will reflect on the budget.
“There have been talks with the technical missions, when each measure was examined separately, mainly to see how it would reflect in the budget, following offsetting steps. The final form will be known exactly when Parliament passes the Tax Code. That will also be the form accepted by the IMF and the European Commission,” Teodorovici said.
A joint IMF and EC delegation was in Bucharest over May 19 – 26 for technical talks on the Tax Code and the stage attained with the implementation of the measures set forth in the program agreed upon with the international financial institutions.
Romania has a 2 bln euro stand-by arrangement with the IMF underway, of which the authorities accessed no funds; the purpose of the precautionary agreement has been to protect the Romanian economy from potential financial market shocks.
The current stand-by agreement is Romania’s 10th with the International Monetary Fund in the last 23 years and the third agreement requested by the IMF since the onset of the economic crisis in 2009. The 24-month arrangement was concluded in September 2013, Agerpres informs.
