Govt rejects bill proposing freeze on farmer payments

The Government on February 6 turned down a bill that envisaged the rescheduling of agricultural producers’ debts for the land tax and the state social insurance contributions for 2007 and 2008, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the bill’s authors, the Opposition MPs Valeriu Cosarciuc and Alexandru Oleinic, the draft law was worked out at the request of the farmers, who asked to be allowed to pay the debts between June 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. The bill says that the Government should allocate financial resources to compensate for the losses sustained by the local budget during the two years. In its notice, the Government says that the approval of such a bill is not opportune because according to article 180 of the Fiscal Code, the tax payers have the right to have their debts rescheduled or cancelled during two fiscal years. The debts are rescheduled under a contract approved by the State Main Fiscal Inspectorate, which is signed by the fiscal body and the tax payer. The Government also argued that the agricultural producers are exempted from the income tax, road tax, real estate tax and water tax for a period of five years as from January 1, 2006. The Government says that if the state social insurance budget will be deprived of the financial resources asked by the Opposition MPs, the pensions and allowances could not be raised.