Dodon group suggests focusing on producers and fiscal policy

Former members of the Government propose amendments to the budgetary-fiscal policy bill that improve the situation of the employees in times of crisis, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the press service of MP Igor Dodon. He, MP and former Economy Minister, Zinaida Greceanyi, lawmaker and ex-Premier, and Viorel Melnic, ex-director of the Customs Service, gave a news conference centering on the economic situation in Moldova. They suggested a number of measures aimed at remedying the economic situation and at improving the fiscal policy. ”Given the political instability, the disorder in the inspection bodies, the unfavorable criminological situation and the inefficiency of the judiciary, in order to maintain the attractiveness of the national economy for entrepreneurs, stimulate investments and create new workplaces, the 0% tax on the incomes of companies should be kept for at least five more years. This proposal also covers the small companies, on which the Government intends to put a tax of 4% of the sales,” reads the communiqué. So as to support the agricultural sector and processing companies, the VAT of 8% on agricultural production should be annulled and the standard rate should be restored, while the state should subsidize the VAT in agriculture by fully refunding this tax from the budget within five workdays. “A norm should be included in the Tax Code to allow paying interest to the entitled economic entities from the budget when the subsidies are not paid on time,” said the group of former members of the Government. According to them, in order to adjust the fiscal pressure to the inflationist processes and to continue raising the personal exemptions on the income tax to the minimum subsistence level, the exemptions for private individuals must be reviewed and increased. “We suggest that the personal exemption and the exemption for wife (husband) should be 12 000 lei a year in 2012, while the exemption for maintained persons 3 600 lei a year, as against 8 640 lei and 1 920 lei proposed by the Government. So as not to increase the fiscal pressure on the private individuals, the income tax on non-salary payments shouldn’t be raised from 5% to 7%,” stated the Dodon-Grecianyi-Melnic group. They said the fiscal pressure on the salary fund is now about 54%, including of the VAT - 20%, social contributions - 29%, health insurance - 7%, the tax on private individuals’ incomes - 7-18%. This means that 54 lei of the 100 lei collected from sales and directed for paying salaries will be fiscal obligations paid into the national public budget and only 46 lei will be paid as salary. “We consider there should be instituted a regressive system for calculating the social contributions. Thus, the social contributions calculated by the employer should be decreased from 23% to 20% for the economic entities that increase the salary fund by at least 25% and do not cut the personnel,” said the Dodon group.