RO SocDem speak of broad fiscal reform, progressive taxation on the table

Marcel Ciolacu, the president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), announced on Monday, May 16, that his party would come up with amendments to the Fiscal Code by the beginning of June, implying that they should be endorsed by the end of the month to be enforced as of January 2023.

There was nothing clear in the statements of Marcel Ciolacu - except for the final goal of increasing the budget revenues. Ciolacu also spoke against the "flat tax" system ("which is no longer flat, given the multitude of exceptions") and in favour of the progressive taxation of incomes, News.ro reported.

The taxes (in general) should not be increased - but "resized and reconfigured" such as to result in larger revenues to the budget, the Social Democrat leader said, trying to avoid a direct and positive answer to the main question on this topic: will there be new taxes or higher tax rates?

Speaking on the same hot topic, "strategy adviser" to National Bank of Romania (BNR) Adrian Vasilescu, himself a non-economist just like the Social Democrat leader, argued in favour of "higher taxation" in general as obviously needed "all things considered."

In his opinion, an option to stop the rise in inflation would be to increase taxes. "I think we will inevitably move - it is a personal opinion, I am not speaking on behalf of the National Bank - we will inevitably move towards higher taxes because at this time we are the last country in the EU by the budget revenues to GDP ratio," Vasilescu said, quoted by Digi24.

Former PM and finance minister Florin Citu, and economist and currently head of the Senate, argued against higher taxation "all things considered," according to Bursa.

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