Food sales have declined by 10% this month, following the VATincrease from 19% to 24%, according to producers, who expect thesales decline to become even steeper, of 15-20%. "In fact these areundeclared sales for which no VAT is paid, which means we areheading towards an 80% tax evasion. I don't think the 0.1 RON priceincrease for bread has dissuaded people from buying bread, I thinkthey prefer to get it cheaper, from a store supplied by the blackmarket," said Aurel Popescu, president of the bread industryemployers' association Rompan at the Mediafax Talks about RomanianAgriculture seminar.
Big retailers in turn are unhappy about the black market beingencouraged this year.
"The grey market has risen this year. Consumers say they go moreoften to food markets and to small convenience stores, but theseincreases are not reflected in official statistics because theyfall in the tax evasion category," said Filip Cristescu,operational manager of Billa Romania, the biggest supermarket chainon the Romanian market and vice-president of the Association of BigRetail Chains in Romania.
Increasingly more convenience stores have started to get theirsupplies from the black market and no longer issue fiscal receiptsto customers, says Sorin Minea, president of Romalimenta.
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