The services, called to the fight with the evaders. The measure proposed by Nicușor Dan, between support and controversies

President Nicușor Dan requests the involvement of secret services in combating the great tax evasion and put the subject on the agenda of the CSAT meeting. The decision is long debated by some experts. While some say that this will allow intelligence services to take more than Romania, others argue that in the context in which all the attempts of the state to bring part of the underground economy, other methods must be used, and the services can contribute.

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Marius Ghincea, a researcher at the University of ETH in Switzerland, says that Nicușor Dan's strategy to involve secret services in combating the big tax evasion is an unmarried one for the country and that the result will be the increase of the power structures and the failure of combating tax evasion.

“” The great tax evasion “has nothing to do in the national defense strategy. Nicușor Dan says that we have to” concentrate more state forces to combat this phenomenon. ” Do you know what this means, in concrete terms? That SRI – The Romanian Intelligence Service will sign a protocol with ANAF and send seconds to the tax offices, and then we will probably send SRI officers and to the market stalls … to catch the baboons with the non -fiscal leuștean.“Says Ghincea.

He also recalls that Romania had similar strategies in other fields, but they all proved bankrupt.

“We repeat the same recipe that we applied with education, corruption, health, heritage. All are” national security problems “. The tax evasion becomes the nineteenth domain included in SNAP. At the same time, it should be noted that SNAP 2020 cannot be revised because it only acquires the law. Romania can adopt it and, consequently, by the principle of symmetry, can review it”, Says Ghincea.

“The companies of the services are used by their advantages”

Marius Ghincea has not even forgotten that over time there have been numerous discussions and sufficient evidence regarding the involvement of services in economic activities. Their companies would have been privileged, which distorted the free market and affected competition.

“A major problem related to the functioning of information services in Romania is their involvement in economic activities through privileged private companies, which distorts the free market and affects loyal competition. There are well -documented suspicions that certain private companies in strategic sectors (cyber security, IT infrastructure, energy, etc.) Direct contracts with the state, confidential information, which provides them with an unfair advantage, and informal protection from the Treasury and other state institutions“He adds.

Marius Ghincea also comes with two examples: Florian Coldea or Dumitru Dumbravă's files, whose companies were accused by a lot of irregularities, and the two generals would have violated the law and built real empires by illegal means.

“The existence of these companies controlled by the intelligence services produces a crying out effect on the niches and in the sectors where they operate. The services companies use their advantages in relation to the state to make unfair competition to the market, which often removes the last business. which reduces the dynamism of the whole economy.”, Says Ghincea.

What was the SRI-Anaf relationship in the past

At the same time, the former director of SRI George Maior criticizes the coalition of “extremes” that attack the possible involvement of services in combating tax evasion, showing that SRI agents can only facilitate ANAF activity with relevant information.

“I could see this debate too. As soon as the new president who noticed a real problem related to tax evasion said he would introduce the services. Look at the deontological articles as they resemble those on the extreme right, which are criticized. Similar. “Stop making the mistake of a former president,” when they can do? To convey information to help ANAF at a better collection in a critical moment when the state is close to bankruptcy“, Said George Maior, the former head of the SRI in a podcast on informa.ro.

He remembered how this collaboration worked in the past.

“The best collection period in the history of Romania was between 2012-2014. That was. When I reduced the deficit, when I raised the collection above the EU level, I brought money to the budget … it was extraordinarily efficient, good, for 2 years. done the job, they did nothing but corroborate their institutional, fiscal and acting information, contributing to this phenomenon“Major explained.

What does Economist Andrei Caramitru say

On the other hand, however, Andrei Caramitru, an economist and former political counselor, argues that the idea is excellent. “The tax evasion, especially on VAT is the largest frame and theft of the economy. There are two key areas: the importers who do carousel evasion (people pay VAT at Carrefour or Mega or eMAG – but that VAT goes to the chain to an intermediary); There is no control over the Defisk. ”.

However, according to him, there would be a better variant: “The most effective solution would be: reverse taxation on VAT (for VAT to be paid to the state directly by the final seller not intermediaries); ⁠ Annual income / assets / expenses on the richest 5-10% of Romanians and mandatory in the case of purchasing buildings, cars, etc. ”.

The subject, on the CSAT agenda

Romania is the country in which taxes represent the lowest proportion in the economy, compared to the other states in the European Union, including those in central and eastern Europe. In Romania, the taxes represented only 27%of GDP in 2022, well below the EU average of 40%, but also below the average of comparable countries in Eastern Europe: Poland (34%), Hungary (35%) and Bulgaria (31%), according to official data published by Eurostat in 2024. At the same time, Romania has a huge deficit, the largest of the European Gross (GDP). All under the conditions in which, the Maastricht Treaty has clearly established that the budget deficit limit is 3% of GDP for the Member States of the European Union.

Given that Romania would be able to collect at least as long as Hungary (35%) and Poland (34%), we would escape any kind of worry, and the budget deficit would be below 3%. Instead, the underground economy costs the Romanian state tens of billions of euros, money from which infrastructure, hospitals and schools could be built and the budget deficit would be kept.

Starting from this reality, President Nicușor Dan intends to involve the secret services in combating the great tax evasion.
“We have a big problem related to the deficit, with the great tax evasion, and it is necessary for the institutions, including the services, to be concerned about this problem and it is a discussion whether or not it is necessary to change in this sense the national defense strategy”said Dan. The subject would be included on the agenda of the next CSAT meeting.