Currently, about 60% of the amounts collected into the state budget are generated by the Customs Service. In his speech in a ceremony held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Customs, the Customs Service’s director Vitalie Vrabie said that during the 25 years the institution showed a continuous ascent and is now able to deal with challenges, IPN reports.
Vitalie Vrabie said about 1,050 employees are daily on duty at the Customs Service. About 65 million lei on average is daily collected as import duties. Thus, each employee collects about 62,000 lei per banking day. Simple calculations show that a customs employee in a month collects 1.3 million lei into the state budget, while in a year – about 15 million lei. However, the salaries of customs employees are not appropriate.
According to Vitalie Vrabie, the promotion of a productive partnership between the Customs and business entities is a priority for the Customs Service. “Today the Customs Service comes to support the investors by simplifying the procedures and establishing a permanent dialogue with them. The Customs Service is powerfully exposed to illegalities, probably more than other institutions. We realize this fact and admit that the customs officers also make mistakes, but we correct them daily,” said the chief of the Service.
Attending the ceremony, Prime Minister Pavel Filip highlighted the Customs Service’s accomplishments achieved during the 25 years. He said he supports the reform at the Service and is for the Service’s optimization and for strengthening the professionalism and integrity of the customs employees. “The goal of this reform is to optimize work at the Customs Service, to change the negative image created in time and to finally form professional, efficient and integral personnel,” he stated.
In the official ceremony, a number of customs employees were awarded the Order “Loyalty to the Homeland” and the Medal “Civic Merit” by President Nicolae Timofti and diplomas of the first rank on the part of the Government.
