Two teams of experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are visiting Romania to assess the tax collection procedures and evaluate the Fiscal Code, finance minister Florin Citu announced in a press conference on January 28, local Ziarul Financiar reported.

The Romanian Government targets 3.6% of GDP public deficit this year, down from 4.6% last year, but the 40% pension hike planned for September risks pushing the gap rather up, to 4.6%-4.8% of GDP.

The IMF’s visits were announced last December and are aimed at tackling the fiscal slippage that occurred last year and risks continuing in 2020. Romania is not under program with the IMF.

“The IMF is here to help us on the tax collection side. It's an analysis of how we collect money for the budget, [it will take] two to three weeks. There are two IMF missions, we invited them, one evaluating the collection methodology, another one analysing the Fiscal Code. I want to see what their solutions are for how we can collect more money to the budget. Secondly, I want to figure out whether the Fiscal Code, as it is now, is still appropriate for the real sector,” the finance minister explained.

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