President of Timpul businessmen’s club says new capital legalization stage needed

The state policy in the economic sector must be transparent and not remain only ’intellectual product’ of the Government. The decisions on economic policy must be taken on the basis of broad discussions involving state institutions, entrepreneurs and the civil society, considers Igor Krapivca, former Chisinau councilor and the president of the businessmen’s club Timpul. At a roundtable meeting, Krapivca said that in times of crisis the reciprocal responsibility of the business and the power should be increased, Info-Prim Neo reports. He stressed the necessity of changing the banks’ role in the economic system as well, not only in the financial system. “After the fiscal system, the banking system is the second most powerful decapitalization factor owing to the rates and commissions charged. It would be normal to transform the banks from financial intermediation entities into information and services centers that could financially ensure the economic growth in Moldova and of the national businesses. The modification of the financial structure of the banking system will enable to overcome the crisis with much fewer losses,” Igor Krapivca said. He also made recommendations for the central bank. He said that the bank, together with the Government and the commercial banks, should work out a joint strategy and initiate a series of programs to stimulate consumption. As to the taxation system, Igor Krapivca said that the fiscal burden on the remuneration fund (for companies – social taxes) and on the incomes earned by private individuals should be reduced. “The process of optimizing the taxation system, which started two years ago, has not been finished yet. For example, the income tax for individuals should have been reduced after the introduction of the zero tax on the companies’ reinvested profit. The forgiving of economic entities’ debts was not finalized, being torpedoed by the bureaucratic red tape in the fiscal system. The capital legalization process ended with modest results owing to a number of mistakes. Instead of stimulating the legalization of capital, fiscal pressure is further exerted on the legal taxpayers,” Igor Krapivca considers that there should be announced a new capital legalization stage, both for private individuals and for legal entities, without levying taxes in order to increase budget collections “The capital from the shadow economy should be directed to the official economic sector,” he said. He also said that the achievement of these and other objectives, including the obtaining of a sustainable economic growth, depends a lot on the quality of governance and on the professionalism and efficiency of the new executive team.