We cannot avoid tax increases
The president of the Fiscal Council, Daniel Dăianu, said on Tuesday that the budget deficit is ‘as a crab for the body of the Romanian economy and society’ and it is an illusion that an correction can be made only on the expense side, mentioning that some taxes and taxes cannot be avoided.
‘Any way that can increase the revenues of the Romanian state must be paid. It is not a miraculous solution, this does not exist. The adjustment has an extent that makes it impossible to avoid pain. Those who support the thesis that the deficit correction can only be done on the expense side, run after a chimera, this is not possible. (…) I speak based on the analyzes we do at the Fiscal Council and on the basis of the judgments I have. I believe that we cannot avoid increasing the tax revenues of the state, so I do not talk about non -fiscal income, through some increases in taxes and taxes, « said Dăianu, at the Parliament Palace, after meeting with the Senate President Ilie Bolojan.
According to Dăianu, the budget deficit is ‘as a crab for the body of the Romanian economy and society’.
‘For years the Romanian company lives on the budget chain. Well over possibilities. When I say so it does not mean that the situation is guilty is only the budget sector. This is stupid because the revenues of the budget, teachers, doctors, we are not only talking about functioning, these revenues are spent in the economy and are seen in receipts. It is a crab and can fight against it to be removed. Substantial increase in tax revenues only from a much better collection is not possible. What I said to President Bolojan is what I say public for a long time, « explained Daniel Dăianu.
According to the president of the Fiscal Council, no 30 billion lei can be obtained from expenses.
‘I don’t think so. If you look at the structure of the public budget, you realize that by far the bulk is owned by salaries and pensions. First of all, you cannot cut salaries and pensions, decrees that tomorrow we cut wages and pensions. You can indeed cut from the expenses allocated to goods and services. But you know very well that they are compartments of the budget system that moan because they do not have enough, for example hospitals, even schools, what do we do? Do we cut more from there? We have interest expenses, which do not depend on us. We cannot reduce the expenses with state interest. Interest depends on what happens on international financial markets. If we do not have a credible plan by the impact on tax revenues, I am sorry to say this, we have nothing to do, because we will all have to accept a dramatic reality – that we cannot get out of trouble without giving up some income when it comes to people, when it comes to enterprises. It cannot be otherwise, « explained Dăianu.
Asked what the tools would be by which the new government could eliminate the problem of deficit, Dăianu mentioned that he did not want to go into details and is incorrect to say how the discussion with Ilie Bolojan went.
‘So, my vision, which you can largely know, is also recorded in the documents the Fiscal Council in which we say for a long time that it is an illusion to believe that this correction can only be made on the expense side. Those who believe, speak: it is a swollen state. Look, how many public expenses in GDP has Romania and what is the average in the European Union. That there is corruption, that there is a thief, we know, but this corruption and thief is not cantoned in a compartment, I do not know, in a county. We go there and remove corruption. It is in all pores, « said Daniel Dăianu.
Questioned if he will come to the situation of calling the IMF, he replied: ‘Why do this, when it is much more natural to have a package, be it painful by consequences, but saving the financial unit of Romania, that this is playing now.’
