People dissatisfied with the rise in the property tax on June 3 protested in front of the Chisinau City Hall. They said their incomes decreased during the pandemic year, while the property tax was raised almost two times. The protesters involved representatives of the Party of Action and Solidarity, including councilors, who asked that the Chisinau Municipal Council should be convened immediately to restore the tax applied last year, IPN reports.
PAS councilor Vasile Grădinaru said the Socialist and Shor Party councilors from the CMC on December 29 last year voted to double the property tax, ignoring the fact that the people had lower incomes and needed money to buy medicines to receive treatment for COVID-19. The PAS councilors were against then and left the meeting hall in protest as the decision was put to the vote without being proposed for public debates. Many pensioners and invalids now have to pay this tax even if they hadn’t paid it during many years.
PAS MP Dan Perciun said the developments in the municipality of Chisinau show that the Socialists are disconnected from the reality in which the people live in the Republic of Moldova. Official statistics show 60,000 people last year lost their job. So, almost 10% of the salary earners last year didn’t earn any incomes owing to the pandemic. In a country in which the politicians and the political class think about the people, in a European country, the state helps the citizens by particular payments and by exemptions from taxes.
Earlier, after PAS staged a news conference on the issue, mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban reacted, saying the PAS councilors are campaigning. They don’t know what they are talking about and didn’t say that 78,000 apartment owners will actually be exempted from paying the property tax. The exemptions will total 500,000 lei of the value of property. The measure refers to pensioners, persons with disabilities, families of persons who were killed in the war for defending the territorial integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova and persons who were maintained by these and also other categories of citizens.
