The president of the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), Dumitru Costin, said on Wednesday that the draft ordinance on measures to reduce the impact of rising fuel prices contains "thin solutions" that fail to take into account economic and social realities, and proposed cutting VAT and excise duties on these products.
"The solutions outlined in the draft ordinance, in our view, and as we have conveyed to President Sorin Grindeanu, are rather thin and do not reflect economic and social realities. The main beneficiary at present, based on figures we assessed last night, is undoubtedly the Romanian Government. We are ready, if the prime minister convenes another meeting of the National Tripartite Council, to discuss several options, including reducing excise duties, cutting VAT and other elements that should be addressed urgently but which, again, no one is talking about. Obviously, without affecting state budget revenues," Costin said at the Palace of Parliament.
He explained the additional amounts the Government is gaining from rising fuel prices and gave several examples of measures that could be implemented.
"Since they made the budget projections submitted to Parliament, they are gaining an additional 0.359 lei per litre of diesel, around 0.36 lei for every litre sold, and 0.26 lei per litre of petrol. A VAT reduction could be applied here, which would have, for the time being, a neutral effect on budget revenues, without putting them at risk, while preventing further increases in retail prices. There are combined solutions. We can discuss excise duties and VAT. For instance, VAT on fuels could be reduced from 21% to 16%," the BNS president added.
Dumitru Costin also said he had reproached Grindeanu over meetings held with the Energy Minister, a member of the Social Democratic Party, to which trade unions were not invited.
"I raised this issue with Mr Grindeanu. For example, we learned this morning that on Sunday, for four hours, the business community held talks and consultations with the Energy Minister. I asked whether it would have been so difficult for the Energy Minister, who is from your party, to have someone invite us as well, because we too have viewpoints concerning employees in this country and the majority of the population. We represent workers, whether they are unionised or not," the trade union leader said.
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