Capping wages at the so-called self-financed organisations at the level accorded to the President of Romania is a common-sense criterion, especially for Romania, which is not a rich country, Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Claudiu Nasui said on Thursday evening.
"We have mentioned it in the government agenda as well: let's cap the wages at the president's level, at 12 times the minimum wage. It's a common-sense criterion; 12 times the minimum wage is already a pretty good salary for Romania and especially for a country that is not a rich country. Romania does not teem with money, given that a difficult budget year is looming ahead," Nasui told Antena 3 private broadcaster.
He said that he was and still is a big critic of these so-called self-financed organisations, which took advantage of this status to allocate exorbitant wages and bonuses.
According to the official, entities such as the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF), in which the members on the board of directors receive monthly average net salaries of 17,000 euros, "are also financed from our money, also from taxes, because they have this power to levy taxes."
"If you remember, we had an argument over a bill that added new per diems for the members of the Supervisory Board of ASF. They not only have wages of 17,000 euros on average, and some of 20,000 euros per month, but that are their net wages, to be clear. They claim to be self-financed because they have the right to levy a tax on the RCAs [motor third-party liability insurance - editor's note] that are sold; for every RCA that a Romanian buys, a part goes to ASF. As much as 75% of the gross salary goes to our Pillar II pension account and part of that money is also the ASF commission. In fact, they get financed from our money, also from taxes because they have this power to levy a tax," added Nasui.
Asked if there is a plan to change what is happening with the "self-financed organisations," the minister specified that there is an electoral promise called "Without thousands of agencies," which is designed to reduce the number of state agencies.
"Unfortunately, our agenda is the government's, while ASF, ANRE [National Energy Regulatory Authority], BNR [National Bank of Romania], are all entities operating under Parliament's authority. We have an electoral promise. It is called "Without thousands of agencies" in which we say that we will shorten their number. There are many sinecures, entities made for party members, and that should change," said the minister.
AGERPRES .
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