Romanians pay EUR 1.5 mln in local taxes by card online in two months, up three-fold year-on-year

Romanians got the hang of paying taxes by card, so the value of local taxes paid by card online tripled in the first two months of 2014 compared to the similar period in 2013, according to Visa Europe in Romania. Romanians paid some EUR 1.5 million worth of local taxes by card online in January and February this year. This amount represented two thirds of the total value of transactions registered in 2013. “We are getting closer to having an efficient local tax payment system. In this respect, we welcome the authorities' initiative from the end of 2013 to eliminate from the legislation the possibility for municipalities to surcharge payments through ghiseul.ro. Within the newly developed legal framework, we expect an increase in the number of municipalities that accept the online tax payments,” said Catalin Cretu, Area Manager Romania & Croatia, Visa Europe. He added: “Furthermore, we believe it is necessary that authorities, through amending the secondary legislation, allow the use of simplified ways in order to distribute the access data for ghiseul.ro to taxpayers, which will lead to a significant increase in the use of this platform." At the end of last year, 96 municipalities accepted online payments for local taxes, through ghiseul.ro or their own platforms. Payments by card are also accepted at certain special locations, using the same IT system as the one installed at the fiscal administrations. These are located in mall Promenada, Baneasa Shopping City, Cora Pantelimon, Auchan Vitan, Auchan Titan and Bucuresti Mall, Sun Plaza and Raiffeisen Bank branches in Bucharest, as well as in Iulius Mall on Cluj - Napoca and Iasi, Maritimo in Constanta, and Promenada Mall in Targu Mures. Taxes worth some EUR 220,000 were paid at these special locations in the first two months. Visa Europe, together with its member banks in Romania, run till the end of March 2014 the fifth annual edition of the national campaign to foster local tax payments by card. editor@romania-insider.com