Moldovan parliament votes law on capital liberalization, fiscal stimulus in first reading

Chisinau, 16 December /MOLDPRES/ – Parliament today voted in its first reading the draft law on liberalization of capital and fiscal stimulus. At the same time, representatives of civil society protested in front of Parliament and spoke out against this document adoption.

The project provides capital liberalization so as to enable citizens to declare their capital and that previously was held by others or was not said at all, for a fee of 2 per cent of the property. Thus, individuals will benefit from the liberalization of capital, and for legal persons, the project provides only fiscal stimulus.

The Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, one of the project authors, said that capital liberalization referred both to funds, as well as to capital, such as: real estate, securities, equity shares in the capital of limited companies or vehicles. "If liberalization avoids fiscal penalizing, the law does not provide for amnesty. At the same time, there will not be registered facilities and assets obtained from criminal sources. Similarly, the liberalization of capital represents a unique opportunity to remove from anonymity funds or other forms of capital and to include them in the legal economic cycle," said Andrian Candu.

Also, the speaker said that capital liberalization had three basic aspects: declaring capital that previously was not said, passage of capital on behalf of formal holders to real holders and reflection for tax purposes of the true market value of the assets in order to optimize and their future taxation.

The new law caused more discussions in Parliament. If some MPs said that the document was needed and would bring additional revenue to the state budget, others stated that the project did not provide clear rules to determine the origin of goods, requiring mechanisms to improve the law in the context of public consultations.

However, company representatives, who protested in front of parliament, criticized the draft and said it would seek to legalize theft. "The new law could allow entry of dirty money, and then they will be legalized. Apparently some debates were organized, but everything is done in a hurry, this haste seems dubious. Civil society has the right to examine the document and to participate in correct debates. It seems that it is like legalizing theft of money stolen from the billion scheme," said Promo-Lex director, Pavel Postica.

Present at the protest, head of Action and Solidarity Party, Maia Sandu, said that a law which was not challenged with civil society could not be adopted. "We see that there are mimicked some public debates, while civil society is ignored. By this document, there will be legalized the stolen money. Those who stole should be punished, but the document will stimulate a reverse action," said Maia Sandu.

The draft law on liberalization of capital and fiscal stimulus was registered in Parliament on 01 December 2016. The document was initiated by a group of MPs from the parliamentary majority.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor L. Alcaza)