The persons who practice activities that are declared state monopolies by law will be exempted from paying the tax on commercial units or the service provision tax. An amendment to this effect to the Tax Code is contained in one of the bills for which the Government assumed responsibility before Parliament, IPN reports.

The informative note to the bill says the local public authorities continue to approve tax rates for gaming activities. In most of the cases these are not based on a comprehensive study that would confirm the necessity of setting particular rates, especially because gaming activities, except for casino running, are a state monopoly. The setting of excessive rates for such activities essentially diminishes the revenues of the business entity empowered to organize and perform gaming activities.

The bill authors note the annual tax rate for a gaming machine in Călărași town is 33,100 lei. Thus, the annual tax for a hall with 25 gaming machines is 827,500 lei. In the municipality of Balti, the local annual tax for halls larger than 100 square meters is 500,000 lei. In the municipality of Chisinau, depending on the location of these halls, the annual tax rates vary between 247,000 and 266,000 lei.

The Ministry of Finance proposed amending the Tax Code so as to exempt the persons who perform activities declared state monopolies by law from the tax on commercial units or the service provision tax.

The bill was adopted by the Government bypassing passage through Parliament, was signed by the Speaker and was submitted to the President for promulgation.