Patentees resume protest rallies
https://www.ipn.md/en/patentees-resume-protest-rallies-7967_969814.html
Patent-holding merchants from Chisinau and other parts of Moldova were todayout on the streets again to protest the patent law developments. This time their dissatisfaction has been aroused by recent fines imposed by tax inspectors on meatmen, claiming their documentation was inadequate.
Some 50 protesters, mostly Central Market merchants, gathered in Chisinau's main plaza. The vendors are disgruntled by the fact that the solution recommended as a replacement for their patents – to open individual enterprises – involves loss of income, so they ask to be further let to sell using patents. A number of protesters have told Info-Prim Neo that a couple days ago they were fined 3,000 to 6,000 lei for the fact that they didn't issue checks.
“Our protest actions will augment. People are working without profit ever since they were told to open individual enterprises. Merchants can't afford to pay all the taxes for opening individual enterprises and buy a cash register”, said Eugen Roscovan, the president of the Small Business Association (AMB).
According to him, several days ago, some 20 tax inspectors entered the Central Market and started asking for all kinds of papers and certificates which the vendors do not have yet because the amendments to the patent law are effective since recently and there has been little time to catch up with the developments. “The merchants don't have a cash registers and they cannot afford a bookkeeper to follow the businesses at an individual enterprise”, complained Roscovanu, adding that the existing conditions at marketplaces make it hard for a vendor, who has one square meter assigned on average, to make money.
The AMB president also blames the inspectors for checking everyone at the market. “In Kazakhstan, for example, it is allowed to check a small-scale entrepreneur once in three years, and with a prosecution warrant, too. In Moldova, the inspection authorities are just milking the entrepreneurs using blackmail and intimidation”, Eugen Roscovan added.
The amendments to the Patent Law were approved by the Government on April 16. At present, the monthly tax for using a patent is 190 lei in towns, 90 lei in districts, and 50 lei in villages. Under the approved amendments, patent-based trade will be allowed until 2017.
