The National Employers Confederation of Moldova (CNPM) aims to improve the whole business environment under its umbrella so as to have a say when they negotiate with the authorities, the Confederation’s chairman Leonid Cerescu said in a general meeting of the CNPM held to celebrate four years of activity, IPN reports.
Leonid Cerescu said that Prime Minister Iurie Leanca consulted the employers when he formulated his plan of action as Premier, but the Confederation’s intentions to later meet with the head of Government didn’t produce results.
In the last four years, Moldova witnessed several periods of political instability. Leonid Cerescu said that this situation marked the employers’ activity. However, positive results were achieved, including the restoration of the VAT of 8% on primary agricultural production and sugar and the implementation of the National Accounting Standards in two stages – voluntarily in 2014 and mandatorily from 2015. The legal VAT refunding term was reduced from 90 to 45 days and the number of days of temporary incapacity for work paid by the employers was limited to 15 days a year. But the employers will yet insist on at most 10 days.
Leonid Cerescu also referred to the shortcomings, mentioning the heavier tax burden imposed on enterprises. Despite the effort made by the CNPM, the income tax on legal entities was reintroduced. The mandatory health insurance premium was raised and a tax on dividends was introduced. “Such acts are necessary when there is a world economic crisis. In the current conditions they are a burden for companies. Those who do not resist move to the underground economy,” he stated.
Leonid Cerescu criticized the National Commission for Collective Consultations, saying all the employers’ proposals for improving the functioning were rejected by representatives of the government on the pretext that they encroach on the executive power. “Such argumentation is absurd,” he noted.
In the same meeting, Leonid Cerescu was confirmed as chairman of the CNPM for the next four years. Alexandru Slusari, who heads the National Union of Agricultural Producers Associations “UniAgroProtect”, was elected as deputy chairman. The other deputy heads of the CNPM are Vladimir Florea, who is the managing co-chairman of the Union of Carriers and Road Workers, Pavel Caba, chairman of the Construction-Assembly Employers Association, and Igor Crapivca, head of the National Businessmen’s Club “Timpul”.
