President Igor Dodon has announced the promulgation of a set of laws on fiscal and capital amnesty. The authors of a new article by Sic! remark that the president emerges again as a fervent defender of PDM’s dubious reforms. Following the introduction of the mixed voting system, the President promulgates and defends a reform with questionable benefits and major risks. According to them, his arguments are so weak that it almost seems like he is trying to take upon himself a part of the public heat and help the Democrats bear the weight of these controversial reforms, IPN reports.
The article says the decision to promulgate the set of laws on fiscal and capital amnesty has somehow fallen into the shadow of his refusal to promulgate the law that would have sell the land underlying the former National Stadium to the US Embassy. However, for those who care, the head of the state has produced a small essay in defense of the Democrats’ project, even criticizing them for producing a reform that is not deep enough. The authors, however, believe that his arguments are riddled with bogus.
According to the authors, “the President praises the fact that the Democrats are copying his 2007-2008 amnesty, which has had excellent results, such as the “record-breaking” economic growth of 7.8%. The truth is Moldova has had the same 7.8% growth rate in 2002, and the record was actually hit in 2012, at 9.4%.” As for the actual effects of the 2007-2008 amnesty, the authors have mentioned it in the previous week as well: although the then Minister of Economy Igor Dodon was promising the legalization of at least (!) one billion dollars, only about 360 million lei were legalized, and the state got about 18 million of it, (about $30 million and $1.5 million, respectively, according to exchange rates at the time). Igor Dodon insists to this day the cashings were over 100 million, but economist Veaceslav Negruță says the government has given at the time 100 million to certain state enterprises, which later returned the same money under the pretext of legalization, in order to inflate reform results. However, the state had cancelled debts and penalties of 4.3 billion lei, although initially the Communist government had warned that this would bring losses amounting to half of that sum.”
“Most curious probably is that the President writes that the pro-European forces have abandoned the economic reform of 2007, and that they are only returning to it now. It is unclear what the president means. That the 2007 amnesty should have been continuous? That all debt and tax delays are forgiven as they accumulate? That anyone should be able to legalize any kind of capital at any point in time? Who would pay taxes then?” the authors wonder. According to them, Igor Dodon forgets that Moldova was telling the IMF in a memorandum in 2007 that the “fiscal amnesty is a one-time event.”
The article also mentions that the head of the state touches upon the “massive exodus of the labor force, as a result of crudely inefficient economic policies promoted by the AIE (European Integration Alliance), and the current government” and about the fact that “birthrates are decreasing in geometric progression.” According to the authors, “the idea pushed by Igor Dodon is that Moldova’s people are vanishing because the pro-Europeans didn’t continue his 2007-2008 amnesty.”
The head of the state focuses on fiscal reform and dedicates only two paragraphs to legalization of capital, which is, in fact, the main target of critics from the opposition, the civil society, USA, IMF, EU, etc. According to the authors, he diplomatically admits that he shares “all of the citizens’ honest concerns, as well as those of our foreign friends” and that “ the launch of this initiative is extremely unfit in light of the banking fraud,” and even points a finger at the government for its failure to investigate this fraud.
The article also says that Igor Dodon tells his readers that he had minutiously analyzed the law and that those concerns are unfounded: the law clearly states that legalization covers only illicit goods that came from tax evasion. Basically, the President expresses his conviction that the Prosecutor’s Office, CNA (National Anti-corruption Center), and the rest will be super-alert and mega-independent, and will verify all of these goods for extra dirt. “In short, Igor Dodon reckons the investigation of the billion dollar theft is stalling, yet it doesn’t keep him from trusting the same judges and prosecutors who are behind the delay.”
“Meanwhile, instead of legalization of capital, the President prefers to discuss about fiscal amnesty and incentives. However, the ex-Minister of Economy avoids talking actual numbers and calculations that would show how people are to benefit from the reform,” say the article authors. According to them, President Igor Dodon emerges, again, as a fervent supporter of PDM’s most dubious reforms.
“Mission accomplished, we could say. To his varicolored Socialist-Nationalist-Orthodox-Christian ideologic cloak, Igor Dodon now adds some economic liberalism too in favor of the high bourgeoisie,” the article adds.
The full article can be read here.
