Government wants 90% of state-owned companies’ profit

Some companies held by the Ministry of Economy say they have already transferred their entire 2009 profit to the state budget, after Premier Emil Boc said at the end of the Government meeting on Wednesday that 90% of the state-run companies and public corporations' earnings would be transferred to the state budget "as a sign of solidarity".

"We decided to have the fully or majority state-owned companies, the national companies transfer 90% of their profit tax to the state, the state budget, not just 50% as they had been required to do until now," said Boc, only to rectify and say it was about 90% of the profit. "In other words, companies and public corporations have to join this solidarity effort to help the state budget in these difficult times," the Premier explained.

The state still owns most of the major energy companies like Romgaz, Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, Electrica, Transgaz, Transelectrica and the major energy complexes in Oltenia, Turceni, Craiova and Rovinari.

"We have already sent the entire 2009 profit to the state budget. 100% of the over 100 million euros we posted as net profit went to the state budget. Until now, the law required at least 50% of what we made to go to the state budget, but the state could have asked for a higher share any time," explains Ioan Folescu, general manager of Electrica, a company in the portfolio of the Economy Ministry which posted over 1.1 billion euros in business last year.