Fiscal policy for 2017 likely to be approved next week by Moldovan government

Chisinau, 19 October /MOLDPRES/ – Tax and customs policy for 2017 could be approved by the government of Moldova next week, said today the chairman of the parliamentary commission for economy, budget and finances, Stefan Creanga.

"The deadlines for submitting the draft of the budget law and budget policies have already expired. I discussed with the Minister of Finance, who announced that there were prepared the budget and tax policy draft and the budget, too. The draftof the fiscal policy is exposed to public debate and might be probably approved by the government next week," said the head of the parliamentary commission.

"Regarding the budget draft, there are more discussions, including with the International Monetary Fund, but there were given assurances that the budget would be approved by the end of the year," said Stefan Creanga.

Finance Minister Octavian Armasu, said earlier in a roundtable that the fiscal policy for 2017 was drawn from the current economic situation, which can be considered as stagnant, economic growth is quite modest and investments are small.

The project provides for an adjustment to the inflation rate forecasted for 2017 (5 per cent) of exemptions and taxable income tranches. The portion of taxable income could be increased from 29,640 lei to 31,140 lei, in other words by 1,500 more annually or 125 lei per month. Another good part of this change is that the personal exemption will increase from 10,128 lei to 10,620 lei.

The Ministry of Finance proposes a simplified system of taxation of self-employed individuals in trade, a tax of 1 per cent of revenue from sales, but not less than 3,000 lei. Tax regime that will be imposed on individuals who have income from trade not exceeding 600 thousand in the fiscal period.

Another novelty of the project of the Ministry of Finance is that solid bio fuel share will be taxed at 8 per cent, on the whole system, but 0 per cent for raw material, as  it is now. In order to ensure "predictability of tax policy and legislation and creating an attractive investment environment", it is proposed to set an excise of taxes on fuels for 3 years, capping local taxes and other changes. It is also expected and increase on duty excise rate of filter cigarettes and without filter, to their gradual adjustment to the existing in the countries of the region, including European standards. So, 1,000 pieces of filter cigarettes, the duty rates will be 350 lei + 12 per cent, but not less than 460 lei for 2017; 400 lei + 12 per cent, but not less than 520 lei for 2018 and respectively 450 lei + 12 per cent, but not less than 580 lei for 2019.

Another novelty is determining the rate of excise duty for cars in national currency being applied average official exchange rate of MDL set for the first half of 2016.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)