ECO-BUS WEEKLY DIGEST April 15-21 June. Most important Economy & Business news by IPN
● TUESDAY, June 16
Chisinau public transport companies fail to earn over 26m lei revenue
The Chisinau Electric Transport Company and the Urban Bus Company sent letters to the municipality, asking to compensate them for the revenues that they failed to earn during March-May while the public transport was suspended or ran according to special timetables and for the costs incurred by them for protective means needed during the pandemic. The sum totals over 26 million lei. In a response to an inquiry made by IPN News Agency, the General Public Transport and Communications Division said the Chisinau Electric Transport Company assessed the failed revenues at 19.526,6 million lei, while the costs for protective equipment and disinfectants at 1.350 million lei. The Urban Bus Company for the period reported failed revenues of 4.606,1 billion lei and costs for protective means of 536,800 lei.
● WEDNESDAY, June 17
Over 50,300 business entities use “e-Invoice”
The automated information system “e-Invoice” in six years of its launch has become increasingly popular among taxpayers. The data of the Center of Information Technology in Finance show the number of taxpayers that use the “e-Invoice” system rose from 500 in the first three months of 2014 to over 50,300 at the start of 2020. According to the Center’s statistics, the 50,300 individual taxpayers, using the automated information system “e-Invoice”, in the period issued over 8.5 million fiscal invoices. In 2019, the monthly average of invoices issued through this system was 175,000, while the daily average about 8,000.
Government pronounces on proposal to suspend state inspections
The current normative framework provides a number of instruments for protecting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and for avoiding abuses on the part of inspection bodies, says the Governments’ appraisal of MP Alexandru Slusari’s legislative proposal to suspend state inspections at the mentioned entities. The MP said many enterprises will encounter difficulties in recovering after the pandemic crisis. They lost some of the partners and do not have the necessity financial resources. In the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Sergiu Răilean said the Commission for Exceptional Situations already instituted a moratorium on inspections until June 1, 2020. There were promoted a series of new measures to support the enterprises working on this market segment.
Mobile Internet traffic grew over 41% in first quarter of this year
The mobile broadband Internet traffic in the first three months of 2020 increased by 41.1% compared with the corresponding period last year to 33.5 million GB. The mobile Internet traffic used through smartphones grew by 63.4% to 16.8 million GB, while the users of mobile Internet through dedicated access consumed by 24.1% more traffic, or a total of 16.7 million GB. According to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), the mobile broadband Internet traffic penetration rate per 100 people is 85.7%. The sales on this market segment grew by 8.8% on the same period last year to 298.6 million lei. The monthly average revenue per use of mobile Internet through the smartphone rose by 1.7% to 37.6%, while per user of dedicated mobile Internet increased by 2.1% to 87.6 lei.
Government against amending Labor Code provisions on annual leave
The Government examined the bill to amend the Labor Code proposed by a group of MPs. The authors of the legislative proposal suggested amending the paragraph that regulates the provision of annual leave so that the employees could ask to divide the leave into shorter periods, for example of five, seven and ten days, not necessarily of 14 days, as it is at present. Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbrăveanu said the bill does not contain relevant arguments for making such changes. According to the minister, the current provisions of the Labor Code stipulate that the right to annual leave is guaranteed for all salary earners. Based on the written application of the employee, the leave can be divided into parts, one of which will be of 14 days.
● THURSDAY, June 18
Hairdressers, drugstores and trading units closed for not respecting sanitary norms
As a result of inspections carried out in the course of last week, the authorities decided to close 16 hairdressers, seven drugstores and four private medical institutions, one of which is a dental surgery. Also, five trading units were closed after public health specialists identified different violations of the norms concerning the prevention of infections with the novel coronavirus. Vice director of the National Public Health Agency Vasile Gushtyuk told a news conference that almost 500 entities that provide different services were inspected. It was established that most of them do not fulfill the condition to check the state of health of employees before they start work. Some of the employees were caught working without gloves, masks and visors. There was crowdedness inside trading units, but this is banned. He also said that 12 contravention reports were compiled and fines totaling over 100,000 lei were imposed.
Only 70% of passengers wear masks in public transport
Only 70% of the travellers obey the rule to wear masks in public transport, said Iulian Postică, secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, making reference to the data provided by the National Motor Transport Agency. According to the official, most of the bus and minibus terminals resumed work. Under the decision by the National Extraordinary Commission for Public Health, the passengers are transported only seating and they should mandatorily wear a mask. The vehicles should be disinfected. Not yet all these conditions are met. Iulian Postică said the road passenger transportation is among the worst-hit national economic sectors. In March, before the pandemic, 88% of the over 6,000 planned routes were operated. During the state of emergency, the figure declined to less than 10%.
PPA increases amount claimed from Avia Invest
The Public Property Agency (PPA) asked the court to increase the amount claimed from Avia Invest, which manages the Chisinau International Airport, for not fulfilling the contractual obligations by €87,300. The total sum in damages and penalties claimed by the PPA from the company for not honoring the investment obligations on time and in the way stipulated in the contract is of €601,500. In a press release, the Agency reminds that on March 19 it filed a lawsuit to the Chisinau City Court, asking levying €514,200 from Avia Invest in penalties and damages for the non-fulfillment of the contract. It requested that property and financial assets of Avia Invest to the same value be sequestrated. On March 23, the Chisinau City Hall decided that the case will be tried on June 16, but this was put off owing to the epidemiological situation.
More categories of entrepreneurs can access interest subsidization program
Parliament gave two readings to the bill by which the categories of business entities that can benefit from the interest subsidization program are extended. The Ministry of Finance, which drafted the bill, said the goal is to ensure broader access to liquidity during the current crisis and to offer additional optimal solutions of support. Minister of Finance Sergey Pușcuța, Deputy Prime Minister, said in Parliament that the program could also cover the business entities that borrowed money from nonbank lending organizations. It is proposed increasing the size of loans on which the interest rate is subsidized from three to six monthly salary funds. Another proposal is to review the conditions applied to the program for the refunding of the value added tax so as to simplify and increase the program’s accessibility.
● FRIDAY, June 19
Some categories of lessees in Chisinau exempted from paying rent
The dwellers who rent areas inside preschool and pre-university education institutions and who stopped work during the state of emergency will be exempted from paying rent for the period between March 15 and August 15. A decision to this effect was taken by the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) on June 18. The councilors also allowed rescheduling the payment of rent for the period between March 17 and May 15 for dwellers who rent spaces from the CMC and who stopped work during the state of emergency. The exemption will be possible based on an additional agreement to the lease drawn up based on an application and the confirmation provided by the building manager.
WB approves €92m financing for energy project
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a financing of €92 million to the Republic of Moldova for the Second District Heating Efficiency Improvement Project, which will fund investments aimed at improving the efficiency of district heating services in Chisinau, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the WB. The project will enable Termoelectrica, the district heating company in Chisinau, to provide more efficient services to the population through installation of new fuel-efficient cogeneration equipment and the reconstruction and modernization of existing heat and power generation facilities. Additionally, the project will finance demand-side energy efficiency and energy conservation investments in selected public and residential buildings. The Project investments will help maintain the reliability of heat supply in Chisinau while significantly improving the district heating system efficiency, leading to a major reduction of CO2 emissions.
● SATURDAY, June 20
Trade unionists criticize method of working for days declared nonworking
The provisions of the Government decision on the method of working for days declared nonworking run counter to the provisions of the Labor Code, consider trade unionists, who do not agree with the extension of the workdays by one hour and reduction of the lunch break by 30 minutes from Monday through Friday, as of May 18, so as to work for ten non-worked days. The National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova sent a letter to the secretary of state of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection Nelea Rusu. The letter says that under paragraph (5) of Article 111 of the Labor Code, for the salary earners to optimally use the nonworking days and bank holidays, the Government can transfer the nonworking days to other days. The extension of the workdays by one hour and reduction of the lunch break by 30 minutes are prerogatives negotiated by the employer and employee and are stipulated in the internal regulations of the unit, in the collective contract and in the individual work contract. The Confederation suggests that point 1 of the draft Government decision on the method of working for days declared nonworking should provide that the days declared free from work (22 days) should be worked on Saturdays in 2020-2021, while points 2-5 should be excluded.
