Romanian companies bought 30,000 digital signatures

In Romania there are approximately 30,000 digital signature certificates allowing users to fill in their tax statements online, maintains Adrian Floarea, a business development manager with certSign, one of the biggest players on this market.
The company, which in 2009 generated 260,000-euro profit amid 1.9m-euro turnover, last year sold 15,000 electronic signature certificates, with sales being spurred by the order the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF) issued last autumn, forcing large and medium-sized companies to file their fiscal statements online.
"ANAF order was the catalyst that prompted a large number of medium-sized enterprises to submit their tax statements in an electronic format, a reason why most buyers were legal representatives of taxpayers or persons mandated by taxpayers to sign and submit their tax statements. State institutions also asked for digital certificates," Floarea says.
Besides certSign, digital certificates are also issued by another two domestic companies, namely Trans Sped and DigiSign. The price of such a certificate ranges between 37.7 and 58.2 euros.