Mobile telephony operators to transfer 2.5% of incomes to Social Protection Fund

The mobile telephony operators will transfer 2.5% of their gross receipts to the National Social Protection Fund. The Parliament passed a draft law in this respect on Thursday, July 19. The draft law amends another provision of the same law, as a result of which the owners of mobile telephones and GSM communication services pay USD 2 of the transfers obtained from the payment of the compulsory supplementary monthly subscription. According to Deputy-minister of Economy and Commerce Viorel Melnic this amendment is not a new tax, it is just a new version of the tax. Also the draft law works to the benefit of mobile telephony clients as the payment is not collected from them and then transferred to the mobile telephony operators but it is calculated depending on the sales of the operators. At the same time, the amendment aims at eliminating the present inequity between clients, namely the fact that they were paying the same sum to the national fund regardless of the sum paid for the subscription. Also, the amendment aims at extending the aforementioned obligation on all the mobile telephony operators, regardless of the technology (used standard), in this way avoiding the creation of unequal activity conditions on the market between operators, as the Minister says that the tax is not paid at present by the subscribers of “Moldtelecom” JSC. The opposition MPs did not support the project. Several MPs said that this amendment will affect the population anyway, because the operators will increase the tariffs. Several MPs even asked to give up the tax altogether but the proposal was not accepted. Three mobile telephony operators are working in Moldova at present. They service about 1.6 mln clients.