Moldovan Parliament approves budget-and-tax policy in first reading
On Friday night, after several hours of heated debates, the Moldovan Parliament, namely a majority of 54 MPs, approved the country's budget-and-tax policy for 2011 in the first reading.
Despite the vociferous objections by the opposition Communist fraction, the feeble majority voted for pushing up excises on strong alcoholic beverages and cigarettes by 50%.
The document author, Minister of Finance Veaceslav Negruta stated that this measure will let collect extra means to the Budget and should reduce the consumption of the harmful goods by citizens.
Besides this, he emphasized that the bill, if adopted in the shape conceived by the MoF, will invest the Government with the authority to manage foreign credits and grants without asking for Parliament's approval.
"Other changes pertain to cancelling the limit of local tax rates and providing local administrations with the authority to set the rates independently. To increase the amount of commercials, taxes on publishing commercials in the mass media will be cancelled", said the Minister of Finance.
The bill stipulates the broadening of the sources of taxable incomes, the introduction of norms that will spread the using of indirect methods of assessing tax obligations on all economic operators and individuals.
Negruta said that the introduction of real-estate taxation based on the property's real market price shall be put off till year 2012.
The Communists strongly criticized the tax policy bill, claiming that the Government did not care to discuss it with economic operators, employers or trade unions.
MCP leader MP Vladimir Voronin stated, "The Communist faction shall not vote for such budget-and-tax policy because it is definitely anti-social. Even if the majority alliance approves the policy, it will be of little use because there will be nobody in the country to put it into life".
Former Deputy Premier and ex-Minister of Economy MP Igor Dodon voiced concern about the freedom the drafters seek to give to the Government at handling foreign credits and grants all by itself, without approval by the Parliament. He said this means that Filat will be free to take new loans from the International Monetary Fund without asking the Parliament's opinion, and will be only notifying the legislative forum afterwards that the republic has got deeper into foreign debts by this or that sum.
In reply, the Minister of Finance assured that loan sums will be known in advance, and that the money shall be used exclusively for socially essential projects.
The Communists, the Liberals and the Democrats were negative about the much-spoken indirect taxation. The Liberals, however, agreed reluctantly to vote for the budget-and-tax policy in the first reading, but requested to necessarily take into account in the second reading their conditions as follows: to cancel the provisions investing controlling organs with judicial plenary powers, to cancel the organization of a centralized environmental fund, and to cancel the indirect taxation.
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