Former Romanian FinMin: The fiscal lottery draws were legal, the winners can keep the money

Recent media reports have shown that the fiscal lottery draws in Romania have disregarded the procedures described by the Fiscal Lottery Law and all the results have been misinterpreted. However, former Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said that the problems appeared because of some differences on how a ministerial order was interpreted and that the fiscal lottery draws were legal. Moreover, none of the winners so far will have to give the money back to the state. “My decision was to change the corresponding legislation in order to simplify this mechanism […] No Romanian will have to give back to the state the money gained from such lotteries,” Teodorovici said, cited by local Mediafax. He added that the lottery draws organized so far were conducted legally. According to the law, the draw should first extract the units, then the tens figure and then the hundreds figure, to determine the three-figure sum on the winning receipts. However, at each draw, the Finance Ministry selected the hundreds figure first and the units figure last, which means that the draws were made wrong. Six draws have taken place so far. Romania organizes first Fiscal Lottery draw. The winning numbers. Different rules for tax receipt lottery in Romania: maximum 100 winners. Romania organizes second fiscal lottery draw. The winning receipts. Winning receipts for the Romanian fiscal lottery’s third draw. Romania organizes new fiscal lottery draw. Which are the winning receipts? Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com