Law on establishing measures of backing entrepreneurial activity published in Moldova's Official Journal

Chisinau, 25 April /MOLDPRES/ - The decree on promulgation and the law on the establishment of measures of backing the entrepreneurial activity was published in the Official Journal (Monitorul Oficial) today.    

The amendments made to the legislation were proposed by the government, in the context of the economic and social effects of the situation triggered by COVID-19.  

To support the business environment, the state will come up with a mechanism of implementation of the programme on subsidization of interests. The concerned programme is conceived to facilitate the enterprises’ access to borrowing loans on the period 1 May 2020 – 31 December 2020. The programme’s goal is to provide support to the enterprises which borrow credits without restricting their purpose (payment of salaries, current assets, investments) through compensating the sum of the monthly interest paid or which is to be paid for the credits borrowed.  

The document also sees the establishment of the legal framework for the implementation of the programme on the reimbursement of the value added tax (VAT) meant for the subsequent period. The programme is aimed at giving the tax payers who pay VAT right to ask for the reimbursement of the tax, which will significantly enhance the enterprises’ liquidity. It is worth mentioning that, according to the declaration on VAT for the fiscal period December 2029, over 16,000 economic agents registered the VAT sum meant for the subsequent period. The main sectors in which the resources worth about 1 billion lei will be injected, within this programme, are agriculture, forestry and fishing, processing industry, transport and depositing, information and communication, etc.    

The fiscal policy measure of cancelling the exemption from the income got from the investments made in state transferable securities is aimed at making uniform the fiscal treatment for various financial instruments.

At the same time, to ensure the support of the enterprises from the HoReCa sector, concomitantly with the non-allowing of the increase in the VAT sum on debt, decision-makers propose diminution of the VAT quota from 20 to 15 per cent.  

The law also contains provisions regarding the enforcement of the exemptions from VAT, excise duties, customs tax and tax for customs procedures for the consumable goods imported by international teams/modules of intervention, which participate in international exercises of management of the emergency situations’ consequences, held in Moldova.  
 
The document proposes measures of backing the editorial activity in Moldova.  

Also, to eliminate the situation in which the excise duty on the native products is paid twice, once to the producer and the second time – to the duty-free shop, and the producer is disadvantaged against the importer, as the native goods are non-competitive against the import ones, decision-makers suggested that the producer benefits from right to ask for the return of the excise duty on the goods delivered to the managers of the duty-free shops, without taking into account the concerned shop’s location.

To increase the budget revenues, the quota of the tax on the extraction of useful minerals is proposed to be established as follows – the average value per unit of the useful mineral extracted in double size. Also, taking into account that, during 2017-2019, the sums collected are insignificant at the tax on carrying out of geological prospecting , tax on carrying out of geological explorations and the tax on standing wood, these taxes are suggested to be abrogated. Concomitantly, more taxes are suggested to be unified for the rational and complex use of the subsoil, its protection, as well as for ensuring the security of the works at the use of the subsoil. According to the government’s estimations, following these amendments, the budget revenues will increase twice from the concerned taxes.

The law also establishes merger of the social insurances contributions (both of the ones owed by the employer and those owed by the employees) at the level of employer (with simultaneous exclusion of the health insurance premiums), which will allow distributing the fiscal burden between the employer and the employee.  

The amendments which regard the adjusting of the provisions of the Law on the Fund of supporting the residents are aimed at strengthening the concerned fund’s financing sources, which will allow enhancing the social protection of disadvantaged people. Thus, decision-makers propose the introduction of two taxes, namely the ‘’portability tax’’ and the ‘’airport tax.’’  

At the same time, the amendments seen to the law on the parks for the information technology are aimed at extending the guarantee as to the imposing of the one-off tax for the residents of the IT park, which was to expire on 1 January 2020, by four years till 1 January 2026.  

The goal of the adjusting of the law on tobacco control is to postpone from 20 May 2020 till the expiration of three months after the lift of the emergency state, the term of establishing the ban on the visible exposition of tobacco products. The measure is necessary, given that, in March-May 2020, the economic agents were to carry out activities of setting special selling equipments at sale points.     

Source: www.monitorul.md