The Social Inspectorate will carry out selective inspections at households suspected of declaring lower incomes when applying for energy subsidies. According to the authorities, some of the persons can declare undervalued incomes and these include not only persons who are paid salaries unofficially, but also the entrepreneurs working based on patent, peasant farmsteads and other activities for which income control mechanisms do not exist, IPN reports.
“This problem is relevant also for other programs, such as social assistance. It is a known problem and we therefore strengthened the Social Inspectorate. The information system “Energy Vulnerability” takes into account first the household’s property indicators, primarily the real estate. We see if the household poses an undervaluing risk and, if this risk persists, the Social Inspectorate will pay a visit and will see if the household declares all the incomes or not,” Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari told a news conference.
According to data of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, about 192,000 people in Moldova work informally, primarily in agriculture, the building sector and trade. These persons do not benefit from social protection and are exposed to the risk of experiencing extreme poverty when retiring. Due to undeclared work, the social insurance budget in 2022 has a deficit of almost 5 billion lei, while total fiscal losses are estimated at 15 billion lei a year.
