Patent holders mounted a protest in front of the Government Building on Monday to express their dissatisfaction with the reform by which trade based on patent as from July 1 is replaced with independent activity with the use of cash registers, which is a simplified fiscal regime. For his part, Minister of Economic Development Dumitru Alaiba said the measure will help the traders to develop, IPN reports.

Protester Eleonora Țurcanu-Herghelegiu said the patent holders are ignored. During 25 years, the state has done nothing for them and now obliges them to use cash registers. The two rounds of talks between patent holders and representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development didn’t produce any result.

Patent holder Olga Chapku, local and town councilor, stated that the patent holders do not make profit, but survive. If they are not invited to discussions, they will declare a memorandum on this law. The councilor called on the people’s ombudsperson to support the patent holders.

Viorel Garaz, secretary of state of the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitization, went out to talk to the protesters, but he was ignored and was not allowed to speak to them.

In a post on Facebook, Minister Dumitru Alaiba said the initiated reform should have been done in 2000. The cash register is something normal in a civilized state. There are about 4,000 patent holders but also 2 million consumers who have the right to get a sales slip. The patent reform offers an alternative – independent activity. The lowest income tax in Europe is applied – of only 1% of sales. The ceiling on sales was raised for four times. With a patent, the annual limit was 300,000 lei, but now the limit under independent activity will be 1.2 million lei. The accounting registers and reports were eliminated. An accountant does not need to be hired and a company does not need to be registered, while the costs of transition, primarily of the cash register, will be compensated by the state.