The collections into the budget in the first half of this year came to 2.26 billion lei, up 10% compared with the corresponding period last year, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the State Tax Service. In a news conference, the head of the Main State Tax Inspectorate Nicolae Platon said the collections plan for June was 13.9% overfulfilled. According to Platon, the Tax Service aims to improve the methods of cooperating with the taxpayers and reduce the human factor in the relations with them. The fast-track tax return was introduced in cooperation with the USAID/BISTAR project. There was created a common tax invoices issuing center. Special attention is paid to identifying phantom companies. Seventy-nine such companies were discovered in 2010. They caused damage to the state budget assessed at 140 million lei. Nicolae Platon said the objectives for the immediate future include working out the tax service development strategy for 2011- 2015, simplifying fiscal reporting and reducing the number of inspections, planning inspections according to risk-related criteria, modifying the mechanism for refunding VAT to companies, etc. The State Tax Service has 1,939 employees, who are mainly young.