The revenues of the local public authorities are own incomes and the right to decide how to use these revenues is an exclusive right of local councils. The local public administrations should be able to adjust the taxable value of property and the land tax rates, said the mayor of Feștelița village of Ștefan Vodă district Nicolae Tudoreanu. The fact that a mayor’s office for 1,000 ha now collects the same amount of land taxes as in 1999, when the Land Code was introduced, points to the full hypocrisy of all the rulers, the mayor stated in a public debate staged by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), IPN reports.
Nicolae Tudoreanu noted that the current government could have solved particular problems faced by the local public authorities. For example, it could have consolidated the tax base for 2022. If such a simple amendment to the fiscal legislation had been made, the given problem would have been solved. As from January 1, the property income could have been larger. At present, a mayor’s office spends more money on salaries paid to employees responsible for the collection of these taxes than the collected amounts.
In the case of the Feștelița mayor’s office, the taxable value of property was adjusted four years ago and not 10,000 lei, but 125,000 lei are currently collected. The agricultural year was good and the time was opportune for adjusting these taxes.
A lot of projects financed by the development partners were announced. But where should the LPAs take money for the own contribution? The land tax could have mostly solved this problem. But such changes will not be made as an electoral year comes. No one would want to assume higher taxes in a pre-electoral year, stated the mayor.
The event was staged as part of the project “EU Debates Café: advancing the knowledge and expertise about EU’s institutions and policies in Moldova” that is implemented by IPRE in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Moldova with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
