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Pro Romania leader Victor Ponta claims that the introduction of progressive taxation is a necessary change after 15 years of flat tax, stating that Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and the National Liberal Party (PNL) "cling to the flat tax to defend the interests of those very rich and privileged, who are their current sponsors".
"Pro Romania has supported since its establishment the principle of progressive taxation (on financial - banking operations, capital, additional property, very high salaries and pensions, economic activities with excessive profit margins) in parallel with the decrease of labor taxation (decrease of the social security contribution), with deductibility of expenses on health and education and stimulating domestic production! A modern system that is being applied in all Western and developed countries! A necessary change after 15 years of flat tax, and given the severe social and economic inequalities that the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating every day!," Victor Ponta wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Ponta criticized the fact that the prime minister still supports the flat tax system.
"Ludovic Orban and PNL / PDL [the defunct Democrat Liberal Party] cling to the flat tax (introduced by Calin Popescu-Tăriceanu in 2005) to defend the interests of the very rich and privileged who are the current sponsors of PNL / PDL leaders, to preserve the advantages of international companies to the detriment of Romanian companies, to place the burden of the crisis on the employees' shoulders and of those with low and medium income. Orban & Co support a tax system that is applied in Russia so that the 'masters' of PNL allow them to do anything in Romania as long as they do not touch their money," added the leader of Pro Romania.
He maintained that, "without a progressive taxation, Romania won't be able to marshall financial resources for the economic recovery, for the development of infrastructure, health and education and for the social system."
"Today Romania is collecting the least amount of money (as a percentage of GDP) to the state budget of all EU countries. With Orban and PNL things will get increasingly worse. We will fight with Orban PNL / PDL for Romania's interest, because we are Pro Romania and we only support Romania," Ponta also wrote.
On Monday, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said that the PNL defends the flat tax and will not give it up in any way.
"PNL defends the flat tax. It is one of the most important Liberal measures, which has had extremely favorable effects for Romania and there's no way that we give it up," Orban said.
