“We note to repeat the imposture.” Why Romania refuses to privatize its large state companies
The government refuses to privatize any major state-owned companies in 2026, even though this was one of the conditions to benefit from the PNRR money. Professor Bogdan Glăvan explains why the governors avoid reforms and, because important sums from European funds are blocked, the authorities resort to increasing tax offices to get money for the budget.
CFR Călători is one of the state companies condemned to mediocrity. PHOTO: The truth
Professor Bogdan Glăvan reacted after Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu hinted that the Romanian Government will avoid privatizing large state companies for the second consecutive year. Although companies like TAROM, CFR and CFR Marfă represent true black holes, the state avoids selling them and prefers to keep them in its portfolio, even though they are at the limit of subsistence. The Government's decision was vehemently criticized by economists, and professor Bogdan Glăvan warns that everything will turn like a boomerang against Romania.
Why does the current government also refuse to make any reforms
“No state company will be privatized in 2026. So, in the first year of government of this coalition, nothing was privatized, and in the second year of government, nothing will be privatized and nothing will be listed on the stock exchange. Needless to say, the previous governments did not privatize anything either, although it was an obligation in the PNRR“, says the teacher.
In this way, he also says, it was demonstrated that in reality the tax increase could have been avoided and that it was not imposed by Romania's financiers.
“And thus the big lie was demonstrated that the increase in taxes was necessary to appease foreign financiers. A farce, a disinformation. In reality, the bureaux increased because Romania's impotent reformers knew from the very beginning that they would not privatize anything and, therefore, they would not have other sources of income for the budget. They premeditated the increase of the bureaux because, among other things, they did not want to privatize anything.”explains professor Bogdan Glăvan.
Moreover, in his opinion the foreign financiers had no illusions that the current government would act differently than the previous ones. In fact, the external financiers not only did not impose the tax increase, but recommended each time that the state privatize the important companies remaining in the portfolio.
We compromise ourselves in the eyes of the country's financiers
“Foreign financiers also knew from the very beginning who they were dealing with, that's why they didn't give two cents on the promises of reform, of valorization of the state's assets. The state had to make money in some way and decided to extract it through a general expropriation, which hit the foundations of economic growth, which was already weak. But it is obvious to anyone that the increase in taxes was not the “solution” expected by foreign investors or read in a textbook of the economy, on the contrary. It is not so in the mind of the rooster. The increase in taxes was never “the only solution”, as various opinion leaders conveyed to us, but a premeditated measure of general spoliation that logically followed the refusal of the nomenclature to get out of hand.”claims professor Bogdan Glăvan.
He claims that we are dealing with an imposture in the true sense of the word. Disinformation and lies, along with an aggressive PR, continue to be the weapons of every government that succeeds in leading the country and mimics reforms.
“Let's point out the imposture once again. Whenever the increase in some taxes was brought up, we were told that this is what it says in the PNRR, that this is how we committed ourselves. The last time, the case of property taxes. Romania's reformers brought forward the European Commission, claiming that it is asking us to increase the taxes. But whenever it was necessary to implement something good for the country from the PNRR, they avoided it. Special pensions? They are still there. Today I found out from the relevant minister is cutting our money. Zero, the European Commission is no longer on our throats, on the contrary, everyone is wiped out“, points out Glăvan.
What will come next for the Romanians?
At the end, professor Bogdan Glăvan “welcomes” with irony the return to the country of Liviu Voinea, Romania's representative at the World Bank, and announces that the state will prepare to increase the fiscal burden and will switch to progressive taxation as soon as possible, in order to squeeze even more money from the population and to mask the lack of reform.
“Not necessarily in a different order of ideas, I welcome the return to the country of Mr. Liviu Voinea. I simply do not know anyone more capable of further increasing the fiscal burden (progressive taxation). And, since the state will continue to need money, among other things to mask the inefficiency in state companies, the increase of biros is, pardon the expression, the only solution”. concludes Bogdan Glăvan.
