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It's is momentum to have a progressive taxation, of special pensions particularly, the Social Democratic Party (co-ruling PSD) chairman Marcel Ciolacu said on Sunday at a Prima TV private television broadcast.
"We will come up with a sustainable pension reform at the moment for Romanians. We cannot leave Romanians with a pension of 1,600 RON. (...) I personally do not have a special pension, and PSD, since I am president of the party, has come up with two legislative changes on special (service, ed. n.) pensions. (...) I think it's the best time to come up with progressive taxation. Of special pensions in particular. It's too much discrepancy. (...) But we have to keep in mind the activity of every one they had in society. (...) We tried three times to abolish them (special pensions, ed.n.). We didn't succeed. It means that we must change our strategy in order to have the efficiency that the Romanians expect, because they consider it an injustice and then we wait for the motivation from the Court (CCR, Constitutional Court, ed. n.) and then, together with the specialists, we come to see maybe it was a motivation on the form not on the merits. If it is only in form, we come again with a draft law of total abolition of special pensions," the leader of the Social Democrats explained.
In his opinion, taxation and the "brunt" are now borne by those on low and middle incomes.
"One cannot, in the public system, have higher incomes than the President of Romania. If we want to place the society in a normality," the Social Democrat added.
Marcel Ciolacu said that in Romania it is about an "excessive" taxation on labour and a tax "too relaxed on capital".
"We have these discussions within the coalition," the official said.
Referring to the economic crisis, Ciolacu said that Romania will not be in the situation in which Greece was because "Greece relied on tourism and the export of olive oil, strawberries. We don't compare the two states. And there was a broader context there. With Germany, with Greece. We are now talking about a crisis that has not only reached Romania. At that time, the crisis was reached only in Greece, due to measures not taken in time. We are now talking about a European and global context," said the PSD chairman.AGERPRES
