In his first press conference after more than four months inoffice, Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu announced he wantedRomania's financial situation midway through this year to allow forsocial contributions to be cut, with a VAT change being out of thequestion.
"I would like it if midway through this year, Romania'sfinancial situation would allow for social contributions to be cut,considering the high labour cost. We have to examine thepossibility of making these cuts. I would like this to happenfirstly for the employers, in order to bring the informal sector tolight and have more people hired."
Because of the high level of social contributions, which, togetherwith the income tax amount to around half the salary, somecompanies prefer to find ways outside the law to pay theiremployees, which deprives the government of social, healthinsurance and unemployment contributions.
Ialomiţianu was for about one hour the target of journalists'quickfire questions. Although he did not ignore any question, theMinister failed to give clear answers to certain key issues.
The Minister announced the Finance Ministry had managed to fallwithin the budget deficit target negotiated with the IMF, with thefiscal imbalance reaching 33.6% RON (6.58% of GDP).
As for 2011, the Finance Ministry asked the IMF to allow for ahigher deficit in the first two quarters in order for investmentsto be made, with the target requested for the first quarter being 8billion RON. The budget deficit negotiated for 2011 is 4.4% of GDP,i.e. 24 billion RON.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
