Administrative burden counts more than income tax, Expert-Grup

The elimination of the zero corporate tax will lead to a reduction in the incomes reinvested by the companies working in Moldova, but it will be insignificant, considers Valeriu Prohnitski, director of the independent analytical center Expert-Grup, Info-Prim Neo reports. ”It is rather improbable that the investments will decrease significantly. This refers to both the foreign economic entities operating in Moldova and those who would like to come to Moldova. The fiscal provisions represent only one of the factors and not one of the most important that are analyzed by the investors before starting and developing a business in a country. The administrative burden, transparency of the regulatory system and skilled labor force are more important and have a greater impact on foreign investors’ decisions,” said Valeriu Prohnitski. In Number 5 of the biannual publication MEGA, Expert-Grup formulated a series of proposals for making the foreign investors come to Moldova. The analysts recommend adopting the package of laws that refer to competition and state support as soon as possible and reviewing the legislation regulating inspections, including at wholesale stores, as the number of cases of sale of counterfeits is worrisome. According to the analysts, the number of cases of fiscal payments made by a company should be further reduced. As to the number of hours needed by an economic entity to fulfill the provisions of all the fiscal regulations, the figure rose from 95 hours in 2010 to 98 hours in 2011 and work is yet to be done to improve the situation.