
Wine producers may be exempted from paying contributions to the Vine and Wine Fund in 2021.
The corresponding draft amendments to the Law on Vine and Wine have been registered in the parliament. The author of the legislative initiative, deputy Chiril Motpan proposes to exempt producers of grape and wine products from paying mandatory contributions to the Vine and Wine Fund in 2021, and the already paid contributions should be transferred against payment obligations for 2022. At the same time, it is proposed that so that the amount of allocations from the state budget for the Vine and Wine Fund, provided for 2021 from the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas, was not less than the approved amount of mandatory contributions to the Wine Fund for 2020-2021 from the state budget. These measures will help support the wineries that have not yet recovered from the adverse climate shocks of previous years, in 2020, were seriously affected by the spring frost and summer drought, as well as from the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is noted that in 2020 the grape harvest has decreased by 60-70% compared to the average annual rate of previous years, and forecasts for 2021 are disappointing. It should be noted that producers of grape and wine products were exempted from paying mandatory contributions to the Grape and Wine Fund, assessed for 2020. According to the Law on Grapes and Wine, producers of grafted seedlings for the production of grapes intended for the production of grape and wine products (the contribution amount is 0.12 lei for the sold grafted seedling for the production of grapes); wine producers (30 lei per ton of sold grapes intended for processing, 0.1 lei per 1 liter of sold wine) - for wineries that have purchased grapes for processing; producers of wine-based drinks, wine-based products (0.1 lei per 1 liter of sold wine or wine-based drink; 1.6 lei per 1 liter of sold absolute alcohol contained in wine-based products with a volume share of alcohol not less than 25%). // 19.02.2021 — InfoMarket.