Moldovan minister of finance says fiscal measures to ensure budgetary stability being necessary, responsible

Chisinau, 14 August /MOLDPRES/ – The Commission of economy, budget and finance of Parliament has examined the draft law which provides for a series of fiscal measures aimed at ensuring budgetary – fiscal stability, on Wednesday, 14 August.

The project has been presented to MPs by the Minister of Finance, Natalia Gavrilita, which has pointed out that the proposed fiscal measures are necessary and responsible. “At the end of 2018, at the same time, the taxes decreased and wages increased. Also, it was also offered a series of electoral gifts. We found ourselves in the situation when we had to solve the consequences of previous governance approaches. Now we have to take emergency measures to ensure the payment of salaries and pensions and have opportunity to invest in roads, repairs and infrastructure," said Natalia Gavrilita.

One of the measures provided by the examined draft law is the meal vouchers offered to employees. Natalia Gavrilita has affirmed that there were carried out negotiations with companies and banks involved in it. "We propose to leave the exemptions for income tax and medical contributions in force, but to introduce social contributions. It is because, the propagation of meal vouchers instrument is a long – term issue and especially for the social insurance budget, or it is a big deficit of over MDL 02 billion in social insurance budget”, said Gavrilita.

Another action aims to cancel the reduced VAT rate of 10 per cent and, respectively, the return to standard rate of VAT in the amount of 20 per cent for economic agents operating in HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, cafes) sector. "We have agreed that after looking at the fiscal policy in upcoming months and finding additional measures to mobilise resources for 2020, then we can return to this issue, especially for hotels in rural areas," said Gavrilita.

The head of Commission of economy, budget and finance, Igor Munteanu, has said that the proposed measures aim to reinstate fiscal equity, but, on the other hand, some business segments still have many questions about how they will be affected by new changes.