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If urgent fiscal adjustment needs to be made, it cannot be achieved by overnight tax increases alone (Concordia's Sucu).
Employers' organisations have asked the prime minister that decisions on tax measures should not be made without being consulted and that fiscal adjustment should not be made only through overnight tax increases, according to president of the Concordia Employers' Confederation Dan Sucu, told Agerpres.
Concordia Employers' Confederation and the National Council of Small and Medium-Sized Private Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR) had a first meeting with prime minister Marcel Ciolacu on Tuesday, the main topic of discussion being the improvement of the quality of social dialogue and public consultation in Romania.
"I am glad to have agreed with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu that we will give more weight to social dialogue. The employers' movement is undergoing a consolidation process in Romania, which we will continue together with our partners from the CNIPMMR. Precisely with the idea of transparent dialogue in mind, we have asked the prime minister that we should see, as soon as possible, the package of fiscal measures that the Government is discussing and that no decisions should be made before having consulted us and the economic sectors that may be affected. In our view, if urgent fiscal adjustment is to take place - and we want to understand how it got here - it cannot be done by overnight tax increases alone, but also by reducing and streamlining budget spending. If we don't spend public money more carefully, and if we don't collect from those who don't pay correctly today, then those of us who are paying our dues on time will always be told that there isn't enough money and we can't accept that," said Dan Sucu, according to a Concordia press release.
In his turn, the president of the CNIPMMR, Florin Jianu, stressed the importance of consultations with the employers' organisations, both under the formal mechanisms of the Economic and Social Council and the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue, but also in working meetings.
"As far as fiscal measures are concerned, I explained that it is not normal to find out halfway through the year that we do not have enough money. Moreover, it would be a blow for companies to find out from one month to the next that they will have to pay extra taxes, especially when we all see that the economy is slowing down. For any tax decision we firstly need dialogue and then sufficient time for implementation. The Fiscal Code talks about a minimum of 6 months, but for certain types of measures more time is needed," Jianu said.
According to the press release, it has been agreed with the Prime Minister to hold regular meetings, both with him and with ministers of the government he leads. The two organisations also asked the Government to give more weight to the opinions of the Economic and Social Council (CES) and the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue (CNTDS) and to always give social partners and civil society enough time to analyse and formulate reasoned opinions on the proposed laws and public policies.
Concordia and the CNIPMMR are committed to coming to the dialogue table with the opinions of the members they represent, based on their own data and analyses. In conclusion, they called on the prime minister to work together at the European level as well, the two confederations being members of BusinessEurope and SMEunited, umbrella organisations representative at European level.
The two employers' organisations also requested the submission of studies and impact analyses on the proposed tax changes and strongly reiterated the importance of not amending the Tax Code until 1 January 2024.
