Dismantling of hundreds of billboards will lead to lower incomes in Chisinau budget, association

09.03.2016 05:03
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The Association of Advertising Agencies of Moldova sent an open letter to Mayor General of Chisinau municipality Dorin Chirtoaca, warning him that the plans to take away hundreds of billboards will lead to a significant decline in the amount of incomes that are to be collected into the municipal budget from this sector, IPN reports, quoting the Association’s letter.

According to the letter, in the municipality of Chisinau there are now 157 street advertising and printing agencies that employ over 2,200 persons. “These figures do not yet include the personnel from the areas affiliated to the street advertising agencies such as the design and maintenance services companies, which will also be seriously affected if the billboards start to be dismantled,” said the Association.

It also says that the budget of Chisinau municipality in 2014 provided for incomes collected from advertising taxes of 27.8 million lei, in 2015 – of 27.7 lei million, while in 2016 – of 26.4 million lei. In 2015 the collected amounts were lower owing to the dismantling of a number of billboards by order of the mayor general of Chisinau municipality.

The Association notes that sales in the area of street advertising annually amount to about 100 million lei, while the business entities operating in this area pay about 16 million lei VAT into the state budget. A sum of 7 million lei is paid as income tax. “Cumulatively, the taxes coming from printing and street advertising total 65 million lei a year,” reads the letter.

“We express our profound concern about the statement you made on a TV channel, about the fact that the operators from the field recouped their investments long ago and, consequently, the billboards can be removed. This public assertion by a mayor shocks because it directly undermines the principles of a market economy. By analogy, any company that recovered its investments must be destroyed. This is a mistaken and dangerous approach that torpedoes the notions of freedom, rule of law and market economy,” says the letter.

The Association of Advertising Agencies of Moldova also writes that it shares the mayor’s concerns about the situation in the area of street advertising, but the measures that need to be taken must be identified in concert, by dialogue and exact rules.