Open to debate: tax amnesty for road transport companies

The Romanian road freight transport companies will no longer be obliged to pay the tax established by the tax collection agency ANAF for the per-diem allowance paid to drivers for the period since July 1, 2015, according to a bill published in the Official Journal on March 31.

The vote on the bill in the Chamber of Deputies was overwhelming in favour of the amnesty: there were 292 votes in favour, zero votes against, two abstentions and one non-voting MP, according to Bursa.ro.

But the bill seems to be at least a controversial and costly practice, Ziarul Financiar daily implies, adding that several large-sized companies, recipients of the bill, are controlled by politicians.

More than 186,000 drivers work in the international transport sector alone, with an average gross income of EUR 2,600 per month, according to a study by KPMG, commissioned by UNTRR - the National Union of Road Transporters in Romania. Out of the EUR 2,600 gross wage earned typically by a driver, only EUR 480 used to be declared as wage (the minimum statutory wage), and the rest was disbursed as per-diem allowance, the daily explains.

The tax amnesty offered to carriers and construction companies leads to the state not collecting revenues of EUR 10 bln for the last five years, according to ZF estimates.

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