A number of companies in Chisinau refuse to pay the local taxes set by the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC). With a debt of over 68 million lei to the municipality, they challenged the relevant decision of the CMC in court, IPN reports.

Finance Division head Veronica Herta said the new taxes cannot be levied. The municipal budget revenues on October 1 were 95.1% collected. The unpaid local taxes totalled 67.8 million lei. The companies do not pay mainly the local taxes for commercial units, market, advertising and street trading units.

The deputy head of the Trade Division Valentina Constantinov said the State Tax Inspectorate asked annulling a number of taxes imposed by the municipality as they are not stipulated in the Tax Code. If the municipality makes the changes demanded by the Inspectorate, millions of lei will not be collected into the local budget. The Games of Chance Association has a debt of 30 million lei, which represents unpaid taxes for cash registers. The chances of recovering the debt are slim as the association uses the right not to pay the disputed sums during the trial.

In the same connection, the acting head of the Architecture, Urbanism and Land Relations Division Ion Carpov said problems are encountered with companies owning billboards. They didn’t pay the local taxes for last year and this year and also appealed the CMC’s decision to court.