August 9, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 09.08.2023, 19:48

Coalition. The Liberal leader Nicolae Ciucă has ruled
out the possibility of breaking up the governing coalition or triggering early
elections, saying that together with the Social Democrats, solutions will be
found so that the tax reform should not involve new taxes for companies. The
clarifications come after new discussions with Prime Minister and leader of the
Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu about the reforms envisaged by the
government through an emergency order relating to the administration and the
tax area. The Prime Minister says he is ready to resign if the Liberal Party
withdraws its support for this package of measures aimed at maintaining the
budget deficit within the limits agreed upon with the European experts. New
consultations between the coalition partners are announced for these days. The
draft emergency order on the elimination of a number of tax facilities and the
modification of a number of taxes is still under debate. The measures are aimed,
among others, at increasing taxes for small and medium-sized enterprises, changing
the VAT or taxing the salaries of programmers earning more than 2,000 euros.
The goal is to increase revenues to the state budget and comply with the
commitments assumed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The
representatives of IT companies have criticised the proposed tax measures,
saying they would seriously affect this field and that some companies are
already considering moving their businesses to nearby countries.

Inflation. The National Bank of Romania has revised
upward its inflation forecast for the end of this year to 7.5% and to 4.4% for
the end of 2024, according to the data presented on Wednesday by the bank’s
governor, Mugur Isărescu. The Central Bank estimated, in May 2023, an inflation
rate of 7.1% for the end of 2023. Mugur Isărescu pointed out that only some tax
increases are leading to a higher inflation rate, namely direct taxes on
consumption, excise taxes and VAT taxes. The report mentions uncertainties regarding the projected
trajectory in the context of the likely adoption of some tax correction
measures to boost budget revenues, which are likely to have a direct impact on
inflation, such as increases in indirect taxes – the VAT and excises.

Kidnapping. The Romanian citizen
kidnapped eight years ago in Burkina Fasso has been released and has safely
reached Romania. The foreign ministry, which made this announcement, thanked
all its international partners, especially the Moroccan authorities, for their
support in solving this case, which it described as extremely complicated.
Iulian Gherguţ, who was working for a security firm at a mine in Burkina Fasso,
was kidnapped in 2015 by armed Islamist groups who later sold him to other
groups in Mali.

Museums.
The Long Night of Museums in the Village, a new Romanian nationwide cultural
event, will take place, for the first time, this year, on September 2, with
Radio Romania’s regional stations partnering with the event. The number of
institutions participating in this first edition has so far reached 79, from 27
different counties. The registration session is open until August 15, and the
goal of the organisers is to get 100 institutions to sign up. On the occasion
of this first edition of the Long Night of Museums in the Village, the National
Network of Museums in Romania will launch a national support campaign for the
development of educational programmes for children and young people from rural
communities.