Marcel Ciolacu: We have the biggest evasion in Europe and we have the lowest taxes. Something is not working

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu declared on Saturday, on Prima TV, that Romania has the biggest evasion in Europe, but also the lowest taxes and added that if we have the lowest taxes, at least we should pay them. He believes that in this situation something is not working.

Marcel Ciolacu was asked, on Saturday, on the Insider Politic show, who will go home if the pensions do not reach the beneficiaries before Easter.

“No one goes home, because they exclude. I receive them. I had a technical meeting with the minister before, with the minister of digitization, who reports to the Romanian Post. I spoke with the minister. It’s one of the priorities and the things… Where I don’t have institutional levers, were the banks. I understood that they had a dialogue with the 22 banks to transfer it through the Post Office, the mechanism was made and now it will also follow through… The money will be transferred”, said the prime minister, according to News.ro.

Asked if he spoke with the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, who claims that the money is not enough for all expenses this year, Ciolacu said: “I am used to Mr. Boloş. And you are used to it. Every year in construction… such things happen when the rectification comes and last year was the same. When I took over the position of prime minister, we had a deficit of 6.8. And everyone said that it would be a tragedy, a catastrophe and the Commission. I went to the Commission, talked and found mechanisms with Mr. Boloş so that they went… We want to make investments of almost 100 billion this year. It will be a record. The sustainability of the Romanian economy is currently based on investments. Consumption has increased. I looked at the figures from January and February. Consumption began to increase. ANAF said they are collecting. They collected. I know it’s a pleasure, especially in public space, with the increase in fees and taxes”.

To the remark according to which everyone predicts this increase next year, the head of the Executive responded: “I made some exceptions. It’s a stupidity”.

Asked if taxes will increase from 2025, Ciolacu replied: “It’s stupid. There are certain specific things that need to be discussed. A tax reform will be implemented, I think by 2026”, Marcel Ciolacu also stated.

Asked to specify whether this means a progressive tax, Marcel Ciolacu spoke of “a fiscal settlement”.

“A fiscal settlement, otherwise passed by the USR, Orban, Cîţu, whoever it was back then. We didn’t have access to that, after all, public information. All those things were secret. That fiscal reform is not implemented in the respective fiscal year, so it has effects… it’s a delay of one year, it’s six months according to the law, because you come with reform, not with fiscal measures. We have removed the exceptions and we are seeing digitization and we have promised very clearly, there is no talk, first to do their duty to the Romanian state. First the state, after 32 years, we are concretely talking about the digitization of ANAF. Which we will complete this year. We will try to… It has started to decrease a bit from the VAT gap, which is the largest,” the prime minister said.

“We have the biggest evasion in Europe”

He also stated that Romania has the highest evasion in Europe, but also the lowest taxes.

“We have the biggest evasion in Europe and we have the lowest taxes. I understand that when you have the lowest taxes, at least let’s pay those. We have low taxes and high evasion. So something is not working. The first thing is digitization. There is no progressive taxation on companies. Corporate taxation is corporate taxation. As well as the single tax, that single tax rate, cannot be 0.5, 9, 16, 19. Where else is it… I can hear the colleagues from the coalition, sir, we remain with the single tax. What is the single charge, I don’t understand it? And I gave some examples. I cannot buy a plot of land for 1000 euros, per individual, and then sell it for 10 million euros and be taxed at 10%. Because this does not happen anywhere in this world. Up to a certain threshold… Those are incomes, the so-called exceptional incomes that must be taxed in stages. That is a progressive taxation”, Marcel Ciolacu also declared.

Publisher: CLB