Economic entities who “feel to be clean in front of the state” can refuse to cover donations for social projects

Economic entities “who feel to be clean in front of the state could throw away” the requests on behalf of the state regarding the sponsorship of social initiatives, without any fear to be further persecuted by the authorities. This is one of the conclusions drawn Thursday, March 1, within the Press Club meeting in Chisinau that addressed the relations between businessmen and public authorities in Moldova regarding the “unofficial taxation” phenomenon. According to economic analyst Veaceslav Ionita, “the state controls only 50% of the economy, without any control over the rest 50 per cent, because its institutions and fiscal administration are very weak”. Thus, a weak state creates a vicious system, since instead of consolidating its capacity and relations with economic entities, it turns from seeing illegal affairs performed by the economic agents, including the double accountancy, under the condition that this entity will make unofficial payments upon request. Political analyst Igor Munteanu mentioned that the parallel existence of the two tax systems, the official and unofficial ones, is counterproductive both for the future economic growth and for the health of the public institutions. According to the expert, this parallel tax system leads to the objective temptation of business to stay in the grey economy, to hide its profits because they know: the greater the officials perceive his business, the greater will be the pressure over him to contribute financially for the state’s social projects. The analysts claim that the unofficial payments paid by economic entities to finance different social initiatives, launched by authorities, could reach 300 mln lei, in comparison to 220 mln estimated previously. Four out of five respondents of a survey performed by IDIS among economic entities claim that in 2006 they had been requested by public authorities to make payments above the ones according to the fiscal legislation. The payment was made in cash, without any payment checks. 90% of the respondents considered these payments to be a burden and an illegal imposition. Most of the respondents believe that they cannot go unpunished in case they don’t make the payments requested by the authorities. The experts repeated in a number of times that the authorities have taken in an illegal manner the missions that normally are reserved to philanthropy organisations, church, NGOs etc. In this case, these entities urge the state to accelerate the regulation framework for public-private relations, and to give up the philanthropy activities and formulate long term policies to solve social problems.