“Romania can levy higher taxes on multinational companies, which can legally choose to transfer their profits to other countries and pay there the tax on the profit made in our country,” the former Finance Minister wrote on her blog.
“I strongly believe that this source of revenue should be used because lots of money are leaving the country without us even trying to hold on to them,” Petrescu added, pointing out that “the situation could get worse unless the Finance Minister immediately intervenes with revenue-boosting measures.”
“Unless Finances better collect [taxes] in the next months and if they surpass the 2.95 percent of GDP budget deficit included in the 2016 budget, it’s almost impossible for these measures to be implemented in the next year and, moreover, we risk a deficit in excess of 3 percent of GDP. This excessive deficit would make our life difficult. It can bring painful fines from the European Commission, which will ask us to revoke the measures that led to the surpassing of the 3 percent deficit,” the former Finance Minister explained.
“The new salary law will represent a very high expenditure for the government, but one that was not included in the 2016 budget. What public sector trade unions are asking for is primarily fixing some inequities and irregularities in the way public sector employees are paid. If the new salary law fixes these irregularities, the Finances will have to pay more for salaries. However, to do that there have to be more money in the budget,” Ioana Petrescu wrote.
