Commercial banks paid 1.2 billion RON (290 million euros) in profit tax, data sent by the National Fiscal Administration Agency to ZF reveal.

NBR, on the other hand paid 350.7 million RON of its net revenues to the state budget. The central bank had paid 1.08 billion RON as profit tax for the first eleven months, but the amount was later reclassified as payments from NBR's net revenues (non-fiscal revenues), which put the total to 1.4 billion RON (330 million euros).

In all, the banking system managed to remain profitable last year despite the 7.1% drop of the economy and the relatively "frozen" lending to companies and individual clients.

Still, the net profit of the 42 local banks amounted to some 772 million RON (182 million euros), six times lower than the record 4.4 billion RON profit made in 2008.

The sum paid by banks to the budget last year accounts for the anticipated taxes for the record 2008 profits and amounts to about 10% of the total profit tax collected by the Finance Ministry.