Keeping the 24% VAT for poultry products generates EUR 61 mln loss to state budget

The high tax evasion and keeping the VAT for poultry products at 24 percent will lead to direct losses of EUR 61.3 million to the state budget, said Ilie Van, the president of the Romanian Bird Breeders' Union, quoted by Agerpres. His statement was meant as a response to allegations that reducing the VAT on poultry products would lead to a drop in budget revenues. Van and the Union are pushing a drop in VAT to 9 percent, which would lead to a hike in consumption, and which would initially generate a loss of EUR 23 million to the state budget. This will however be recovered indirectly by the income tax. The poultry products market was estimated at EUR 1.1 billion in Romania last year. The country has around 500 poultry farms, controlled by 250 companies. editor@romania-insider.com