The country’s economic agents face the problem of doing business in Moldova because of bureaucratic and tax pressure, AmCham said.
Amcham Moldova Executive Director Mila Malairau said at a meeting of the Economic Press Club on Wednesday that AmCham advocates fair punishment for those economic agents who violate, for example, tax laws and evade taxes, causing damage to the budget of the country and its inhabitants. However, there are also situations when businesses are punished either because of a minor detail, not related to payments, but for example information (labeling of products in particular), or because of inaccurate wording in the legislation, which can be interpreted in different ways. Mila Malairau emphasized that this is not a criticism of the central authorities, but of those control bodies that carry out inspections and make decisions to punish the entrepreneurs. She said that whereas in the past companies were quite tolerant of the authorities' interference in business and unfair bureaucracy, now regulations that are unjustified either economically or legally force businesses to reconsider their attitude to the authorities. As soon as it becomes unprofitable to do business in the country, there is a desire to leave it. Mila Malairau stressed that the matter concerns a large number of necessary permits, unfair fines, taxes, customs fees, etc. She said that there are many cases when businesses have been fined by tax or customs authorities for violating the provisions of the laws, which can be interpreted in many different ways. The Executive Director of AmCham said that, as a member of the Dispute Resolution Council (arbitration body) between control authorities and entrepreneurs, she faced situations when even within this platform she could not persuade officials to revise decisions on this or that case, which greatly influenced the economic agent's decision to leave the Moldovan market. Mila Malairau is convinced that where there are different interpretations of the norms, the entrepreneurs should be found right or the legislation should be revised, so that in the future there are no such situations and the economic agents have the clarity of the laws. But according to Amcham's Executive Director, a member of the Dispute Resolution Council, this is not happening. Instead of urgently changing the law, the authorities are leaving it up to other economic agents who make the same mistake to be fined. This attitude towards business, according to Mila Malairau, could cost the authorities dearly in terms of investment. //27.10.2022 - InfoMarket
