Romanian Govt. considers amending “greed tax” in couple of weeks

Romania's Government considers the proposal drafted by the National Committee for Macroprudential Supervision (CNSM) for amending the tax on financial assets (the “greed tax”), finance minister Eugen Teodorovici told lawmakers, according to Profit.ro.

The Government will discuss with local banks possible amendments to the Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 114/2018 in particular concerning the tax rate, but also regarding the taxation base (the categories of financial assets subject to the tax), he explained.

The latest meeting of CNSM on the topic of OUG 114 took place on February 18 and resulted in no concrete agreement between Romania's National Bank (BNR) and Government. Therefore it is unclear what proposal the Government is going to choose for further consideration. Nevertheless, minister Teodorovici said that a final decision is expected within one week or a couple of weeks and will envisage a new benchmark to be used for the calculation of the interest rate for retail loans.

In related news, the Senate’s expert committee deferred a decision on OUG 114 in its February 26 meeting. The delay might, however, result in the Senate endorsing the ordinance under the default procedure, with no amendments. The Chamber of Deputies will resume talks on the OUG starting from the Government’s text, under such a scenario.

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