The Confederation of Authorized Operators and Transporters from Romania (COTAR) requests explanations from the Romanian Government regarding the operation of companies that mediate alternative transport (digital platforms), “having opinions that an authority within the Ministry of Digitalization issued for companies from Estonia and the Netherlands , although the law provides for the issuance of notices only for companies in Romania.
COTAR representatives also say that they have documents that prove the tax evasion made by these companies, “the facts being known to the control institutions and at the Government level, but never investigated or stopped”.
The specification sent CARGO DAY:
“Art. 2 of GEO 49//2019 on specific alternative transport activities, at letter j): “operator of the digital platform is the legal person in whose name the technical approval is issued for the digital platform through which alternative transport is intermediated”, and at letter – b ) “technical approval means a document issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society for the digital platforms made available by their operators, which ensures the intermediation of alternative transport”.
Also, Art. 6 specifies: “In the situation where the operator of the digital platform is a non-resident legal person, he is obliged to have, throughout the period in which it carries out its activity of intermediation of alternative transport on the territory of Romania, a subsidiary registered at the National Office of the Trade Registry, through which commercial activities are carried out in Romania”. And Art. 21 specifies: “(1) All revenues obtained from alternative transport are taxed in accordance with the tax legislation in force in Romania”.
In violation of the law, alternative transport platforms have, until now, operated on the basis of documents issued for companies from other states and without payment of VAT.
The Info Taxi Association sent an address to the Authority for the Digitization of Romania (“ADR”), on June 29, 2023, reporting several irregularities, but the Ministry of Digitization did not react, leaving the companies to operate illegally, with support from the Government.
“Checking the list of digital platforms technically approved by your institution, we notice that there are two approvals (Uber BV legally represented by UBER BV – Filiala București SRL and Bolt Operation OU, legally represented by Bolt Services Ro SRL) issued to parent entities in the Netherlands and , respectively, Estonia, not to their branches in Romania”, the Association pointed out. Thus, even the Ministry of Digitalization, through ADR, sent documents to companies from other states, violating the law and allowing companies to operate in Romania, without complying with the legal provisions.
Checks were made on the website of these platforms, to look for the notices that must be published, in accordance with Art 25 letter n) of GEO 49. They were published only on the Bolt website, and Uber did not comply with the legal provision: “to publish on the digital platform the technical opinion issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society“.
Taking into account the provisions of Art. 6 of GEO no. 49/2019, the notices issued by ADR should have been for branches in Romania, not for commercial companies in Estonia or the Netherlands, as issued by ADR. Violation of the legal provisions should lead to the withdrawal of these notices. Although the ADR was asked to take enforcement action, Uber and Bolt continued to operate based on the approvals that the Romanian institution grants to companies in Estonia and the Netherlands.
Also, ANAF should check whether these platforms have paid VAT in Romania, because from several contracts and invoices that we have come into possession of, it appears that they also violated the law from a fiscal point of view.»
