A portion of 60% of the taxes for natural resources will remain in the budgets of villages and towns, except for the municipalities of Bălți and Chisinau. The other 40% will be transferred to the district budgets that now include a 100% tax for natural resources. This is provided in a bill that was given a first reading by Parliament, IPN reports.

Bill author, PPPDA MP Inga Grigoriu, said the goal is to strengthen the financial autonomy of the local public authorities of the first level by increasing their budget revenues. Under the current provisions, the payers transfer the taxes for natural resources to the local budget of the second level. The current method of paying the taxes for natural resources is deficient and negatively affects the budgets of the local authorities of the first level and undermines local financial and fiscal autonomy in Moldova.

The MP noted the tax for natural resources is one of the few taxes that can be localized. The local public authorities of the first level cover most the costs for alleviating the effects of the exploitation of natural resources, such as extraction of useful minerals, water and wood, geological exploitation and use of underground areas.

The bill is to be merged with similar initiatives and will be later debated in the second reading.