Romania’s ruling party leader asks Govt. to deal with “banking greed”

The Government should take measures about “the banking greed and the ROBOR evolution,” Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), said in a speech delivered at the National Council of the PSD on December 16. Dragnea targeted multinationals and energy companies and brought into discussion the turnover tax. “We need a Government, a coalition, to tell banks and also multinationals in Romania, that this country has a right to ask them, from the huge profits they make here, to pay their taxes here and not in fiscal heavens or in their countries of origin; because they make the money here, in Romania, with Romanians […] I am telling everybody that Romania is not a lawless state. We cannot just sit around and watch our resources being taken away,” Dragnea said, quoted by Hotnews.ro. The PSD leader argued that all countries expect the banking system to make a profit but by supporting the economy. “If they made a profit supporting the economy, it was alright; if not, I say that any kind of greed, in any area, needs to be restrained. I am sure you have enough methods, enough ideas for these measures to come up very fast. Maybe event this week, Mr. Teodorovici [e.n. the finance minister], Mr. Vâlcov [e.n a former finance minister and the current economic adviser of prime minister Viorica Dancila.], are you here, you corrupt?,” Dragnea said. He asked the Government to take measures about “the banking greed and the ROBOR evolution.” Speaking of the companies active in the energy sector, Dragnea said gas prices could increase and suggested a turnover tax would be needed if these companies do not make a profit. “A multinational in the energy sector, serious business, has a profit of 0.8 per 1,000; imagine how these people struggle, with businesses of billions of euros a profit of 0.8 per 1,000 […] Let’s talk about the gas price, the gas from Romania’s underground. I understand that, using the pretext of liberalization, energy and gas companies plan to set off other price increases. The gas is in the same place, it gets extracted from the same place […] I think that the government led by Ms. Dăncilă no longer wants to tolerate such a behavior, and from here, from the tribune of the National Council, I ask you to intervene urgently. Meaning, in the areas we have talked about so far, in energy, gas, justice, in gambling, there is a profit tax; if they don’t make a profit, look at the turnover,” he said, quoted by Hotnews.ro. Last year, the Government was looking at introducing a turnover tax, a measure which was eventually dropped. Dragnea spoke of a fight with “those who look greedily to our energy potential, to our resources.” “And those who are angry that Romania is first in the EU on sunflower and corn [production]. Did the weather or the land change in these two years? No. The Government changed. Do you not remember that in 2016 we were all asking [e.n. former prime minister] Cioloş to give subsidies for agriculture and he did not want to? Not that France would be upset that Romania is on the first spot on some agricultural crops. It is just a coincidence,” Dragnea said, quoted by