Romania’s National Fiscal Administration Agency – ANAF could be reorganized and given more autonomy, following the model of the US Internal Revenues Service – IRS.

ANAF’s president Gelu Stefan Diaconu has presented to Prime Minister Victor Ponta a project to reorganize the agency   in a way that it would have more decision making powers and be more independent from political influences.

“My proposal is to create a board of renowned specialists, who would coordinate ANAF’s policies and strategy, instead of having just one person do that, namely ANAF’s president,” Diaconu said.

“To finalize the institution’s deep reform, which I took on in April 2013 when I got this mandate, I think this management solution that distances ANAF from possible political influences is the only real and professional option,” he added.

He said that ANAF couldn’t really become an effective institution as “a poor relative of the Finance Ministry”, which is always subject to decisions by the ministry’s clerks.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta said on Tuesday that he wanted to create an ANAF board and continue modernizing the institution. He also praised ANAF’s activity and its increased efficiency in collecting revenues. ANAF collected some EUR 3.4 billion worth of budget revenues in August, 9% more than in August last year, despite several tax cuts. In the first eight months, the collected revenues amounted to EUR 29.5 billion, up by 8.6% year-on-year.

editor@romania-insider.com