How Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan explains why property taxes will increase from January 1, 2026: We no longer have this money, because we are borrowing it

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan specified on Wednesday, in an interview for ProTV, the reasons why property taxes will increase from January 1, 2026, according to the new package of fiscal measures adopted by the Parliament on Tuesday, after the elimination of provisions declared unconstitutional.

“Each year from the central budget of Romania, very important sums, billions of euros annually, have been transferred to the local authorities, for various programs: roads, schools, hospitals, building envelopes, etc. The state no longer has the capacity to make these transfers at the level it was made until now. We no longer have this money, because we are borrowing it,” Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Wednesday.

“In order to be able to continue investing locally,” says Bolojan, “these taxes have been increased, in such a way that, being collected by the local authorities, they are their revenues.”

“What they must do is not to take them to personnel expenses, not to waste them, but to ensure the co-financing of these investments, because the government, regardless of who will be the prime minister of Romania and which parties will be in government, no longer has the financial capacity, in the following years, to transfer amounts at the level to which it has transferred them so far”, he said.

How much the state pays only in interest: “We could build another highway”

The Prime Minister pointed out certain irregularities in the collection of local taxes.

“It is not normal that in many localities today you have a rate of collection of local taxes of 50%, 60%, 70% and at the same time you sit with your hand outstretched to the Government to give you money because you did not do your job. If the Government had this money in the treasury, it would not be a problem, but the Government of Romania borrows it from international markets”, declared Ilie Bolojan.

The prime minister said that for the contracted loans, the state pays 11 billion euros in interest this year alone.

“Next year we will pay almost 12 billion euros and, as I explained, this value represents the Moldovan highway. That's how much it costs! Think that every year from these interests we could build another highway, the A8, other highways that cross the Carpathians, if we didn't pay such high interest rates and if we didn't waste the money,” the prime minister said.

Almost 80% increase in housing tax

The assembled plenary of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approved on Tuesday, in an emergency procedure, the revised draft law on the new local taxes that will come into force next year, including the increase in property and car taxes.

The adoption of this bill will cause property taxes for natural persons, for cars, to be increased from next year, said the prime minister.

The project proposes the calculation of taxes through a transitory mechanism, until January 2027 when it will switch to taxation at the market value, there being not enough time for implementation until the beginning of next year.

Even so, the housing tax will increase significantly, by almost 80%, according to estimates made by Profit.ro. For a three-room apartment in Bucharest for which the tax this year was 198 lei, next year the owner will owe 355 lei, according to the calculations of the business website.

The draft law proposes updating the taxable values ​​from the Fiscal Code by 2.68 times, regardless of the type of building (concrete frames, wood, etc.). The values ​​provided now are those of 2015, but have been updated with inflation in the meantime.