After the progressive income and wealth taxation, the Romanian Social Democrats (PSD) came up with another option for boosting the budget revenues with the aim of financing higher pensions and social security benefits: the royalties.

The idea was unveiled but not detailed by PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu. Anyway, it does not bode well for the Offshore Law that needs to be amended to unlock the oil companies' investments in the Black Sea.

Ciolacu said that he asked for more data from the Ministry of Finance because the "impact" of the royalties (in terms of budget revenues) is disproportionately low, and they should be aligned with the practice in other European Union member states.

"We looked for areas where the state does not collect enough revenues, such as the royalties, and the impact was asked from the Ministry of Finance, and we will decide how we can regulate things compared to other states in Europe, through a new law," he explained.

High on the to-do list of the Social Democrats, who prepare for ruling, there is the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) drafted by the former centre-right coalition.

"If this coalition [with the Liberals] finally comes into force, we need to go to Brussels and discuss specific details of the PNRR," Ciolacu stated, according to Bursa.ro.

He claims that the PSD and PNL MEPs "are already discussing with the representatives of the European Union regarding the PNRR optimization." 

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Marcel Ciolacu)