Farmers seek subsidies of over 1bn lei, state promises only 300m lei

The Moldovan agricultural producers ask the government to create a subsidization fund of minimum 1 billion lei for 2010. In a set of proposals to the Filat Government, they also ask that all the overdue subsidies for this year be paid by the end of 2009. The farmers refer to the additional subsidies of 250 million lei that will be distributed immediately after the budget for this year is amended, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the National Union of Agricultural Producers Associations “UniAgroProtect”. As regards the fiscal policy, the farmers demand that the state should continue paying the social insurance contribution of 6% for agricultural companies, the Union’s head Valeriu Bulgari said at a meeting of the agricultural producers. Among other demands are fixing a lower VAT of 5-7% on the sale of agricultural products or maintaining the standard VAT of 20% on condition that the tax is calculated, but not paid. UniAgroProtect also proposes lifting the restrictions on the export of agricultural products and simplifying the export procedure to the maximum. Attending the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said farmers’ proposals are welcome in general, but stressed that the demands concerning finances and concessions should be more reasonable. In the end, the Minister of Economy and the representatives of other ministries attending the meeting agreed that the VAT in agriculture should be 8%, while the agriculture subsidization fund – about 300 million lei. The Government officials assured that besides the 300 million lei that represents only budgetary allocations, the farmers will also benefit from financial resources as part of projects financed by foreign donors.