Ilie Bolojan, explanations about the increase in fees and taxes. “We have run out of money for exemptions and vouchers. Where are we going to pay for them?”

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan admitted on Monday evening that there are Romanians for whom “any kind of increase” in terms of the cost of living, including the increase in local taxes, represents “a pressure”. The head of the government says that the Romanian state could no longer function with fees and taxes at their previous value, reasoning that “we no longer have money for exemptions and vouchers”.

“We had to increase property taxes. We had a commitment from Romania that we would bring it to a level that would reflect the market price, and these revenues are local authorities' revenues. Unable to transfer them the same revenues of previous years, we have to increase these taxes. Some things are the fault of the government, some are the fault of the municipalities. We canceled a lot of exceptions, 950,000 people with disabilities who did not pay taxes on houses. We had all kinds of exemptions, for example, if you live in an old building, you have a discount. Many of these houses were rehabilitated, and in their case the increase was not 70%, it was higher,” said Bolojan, in an interview with Digi24.

“Some municipalities increased the car tax much more than the government set. The current legislation does not allow them to reduce it now. So there was some dissatisfaction due to this type of calculations that were not applied well. We could no longer go with the level of taxation we had,” he said.

“There are many people for whom the increase in taxes or the increase in the cost of living in general creates additional pressure,” the prime minister admitted.

“But we no longer had the possibility to transfer huge sums to the local authorities (…) We had to take measures to correct things. We can find the problems, but we have to see what other solutions are. Unfortunately, there are none other than reducing expenses and increasing revenues, including by collecting them,” the head of government emphasized.

When asked about taxes for people with disabilities, the prime minister answered: “They and pensioners with incomes below 3,000 lei benefit from the CASS exemption. There are 957,000 people, and that led us to the situation where 10% of the population did not pay tax on property or cars. If we were to come up with compensatory measures, they must be limited to a house of a certain surface area or a certain cylindrical capacity of car (…) We can no longer go for exemptions in totality. Any exception, any exemption must be considered from what money we cover”.

“But we can no longer go for total exemptions, we no longer have this possibility. Any tax exemption, any voucher – from what money do we pay them? We don't have this money, we borrow,” added the prime minister.

The head of the government showed that, in the event of a return to the decisions regarding the increase of fees and taxes, the budgetary alternative must be found.

“Everything that is proposed could be done, with only one condition: where do we find money to cover money for certain discounts that we make, because otherwise we go back to where we left”, Bolojan pointed out.