The rulers are only attacking vulnerable people, those who cannot defe nd themselves, because even the two percentage point increase in VAT is an attack against the entire population, declared on Thursday the president of the National Trade Union Bloc, Dumitru Costin, at the protest organized in front of the Ministry of Finance.
"I appreciate the fact that you are here together, not just public sector workers, because among you and next to you are also workers from commercial companies. We are trying to bring people together, despite the fact that the political elites are trying to divide us. What has happened so far, in the short time since we have a new government. What they announced, what they submitted to Parliament earlier this week, the bill that they assume responsibility for, is, if you allow me to draw a parallel, as if you were sitting at the table and the waiter comes after putting the soup in front of you and takes it away. He says, I took your soup. We don't know what is going to happen to us in the future. They will almost certainly continue to remain in this toxic coalition.They will continue with measures that only affect the vulnerable. They attack only the vulnerable, those who cannot defend themselves, because even the two percentage point increase in VAT is an attack against the entire population. They have not attacked so far by going to areas of high evasion. There are representatives from the Ministry of Finance and ANAF here. You know very well how much political and diplomatic protection there is for corporations in this country. You know very well how many times you have been banned or have had controls stopped. You know this very well," said Dumitru Costin.
He stated that the authorities are not even bound by those to whom they have "placed Romania's natural resources" and promised that, next week, he will make revelations regarding electricity bills.
"So they don't care about the big corporations. They don't care about those who have put Romania's natural resources in their hands. They don't care! How do you imagine that it's normal for me to give you corporation X or Y Romania's natural resources on a contract, you pay me royalties of 2.5 RON, for years not updated and you don't exploit the natural resources, you don't create jobs? How is it possible that we have huge natural gas deposits in Romania's territorial waters and we don't exploit them? The Turks found the reserves in the Black Sea after seven years. Since last year, since spring, they have been exploiting natural gas with difficulty. What are we doing? We continue to keep the price of natural gas high, we don't extract it from ourselves, we bring it through all kinds of offshores, profits remain outside and come to us and pay bills huge. Next week I will come out with documents and information related to how we are robbed every month, for example, on our electricity bills. Because you know very well, not only did they take our soup, they also took our bread off the table, because the energy market in Romania was liberalized for the second time. We have not yet felt the wave of price increases. We do not know what is going to happen. We asked to be involved, to be discussed with us transparently, to come and propose solutions," declared Dumitru Costin.
He also stated that he had not heard "a word about another toxic topic in this country," namely the fact that there are a million and a half people who have other types of contracts from a legal point of view and pay optional tax on the gross income they have.
"If all of you, as employees, pay 25% for pension, 10% for health, another 10% in income tax from what's left, they have options. They don't pay what they have in their contracts. They pay, if they want, the minimum wage in the economy. One and a half million people. They didn't want to touch on this subject at all. Think about it, I put in the package of amendments that I sent on Sunday on behalf of the organization to all the political groups in the Romanian Parliament, a whole package of measures, but I put in two, damn simple ones. I thought they would at least have the common sense to assume them. One of them was that, quarterly, the Minister of Labor was supposed to report and present before Parliament what he had done to combat gray and black work, because that's where a lot of money is lost. And the second second, the Minister of Finance was supposed to come and present before Parliament what had been done to reduce the famous VAT gap. We all pay VAT, some collect it and don't pay it further. And it doesn't reach where it should. Out of 10 lei paid, only 7 are collected, 3 remain in private pockets. And because of their inability to lead, because of their inability to manage, because of their inability to collect taxes and duties correctly, because of the way they have spent public money aberrantly, we have reached a situation where people who are vulnerable are now paying for all their errors, all their mistakes. We will continue. Tomorrow we will have another action and we will continue like this until we find solutions to rectify the situation. If they want to clean up this economy, this society, they must also put the spotlight on other areas that today they don't even want to talk about. "Let's stay united, let's continue our union struggle until the end," said Dumitru Costin.
A delegation of the National Trade Union Bloc, formed by representatives of the unions present at Thursday's protest and the president of the National Trade Union Confederation, Dumitru Costin, later entered a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Alexandru Nazare.
Hundreds of trade unionists from the Ministry of Finance and the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), affiliated with the Federation of Trade Unions in the Fiscal Administration "Solidarity", are protesting in front of the ministry against the austerity measures.
Protesters use vuvuzelas and display signs that read: "Tax capital and large properties, not workers!"
The BNS recently decided on a calendar of protests to be organized by the unions and federations affiliated with the BNS, as well as the initiation of a video campaign on all social media channels to explain to the public the economic effects on public and private sector employees as a result of the adoption of the austerity measures package.
Thus, every Thursday, between 10:00 and 12:00, a protest will be organized in front of public institutions where the BNS has union members, and the first picket will take place in front of the Ministry of Finance. "Leaders and union members from other sectors in Bucharest are invited to join this event," BNS representatives say.
At the same time, all BNS employees from the budgetary sector are invited to participate during the same time slot.
According to the calendar announced two days ago, on Friday, July 11, the protests will move in front of the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (MMAP) and members of the "Muresul" National Trade Union from Romanian Waters will participate.
The Government assumed responsibility on Monday, in Parliament, for the first package of fiscal measures that provides for tax increases (VAT, excise duties, dividend tax), spending cuts and financial discipline measures, with the aim of reducing the budget deficit and stabilizing public finances.
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