The new government promises to make Moldova the most business-friendly country in Europe. At the same time, the business community is asking parliament to repeal the mandatory levy of 0.5% on investments in fixed assets. This is one of the first practical tests of how well economic policy will align with the stated goal.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova (AmCham) has called for a review of the mechanism provided for in the Urban Planning and Construction Code. The main complaint is that the fee is levied not on the project’s profit or results, but on the investment amount itself.
For an investment project worth 100 million lei, this fee represents an additional cost of 500,000 lei even before the new production facility, infrastructure project, or equipment begins to generate revenue. The more capital-intensive the project, the higher the absolute amount of the fee.
This approach has the greatest impact on the energy, industrial, telecommunications, infrastructure, logistics, and agricultural sectors. These are precisely the sectors that require large initial investments and have long payback periods. The additional fee increases the cost of the project regardless of whether it proves successful.
It is telling that the government’s program proposes measuring the ease of doing business by the cost of compliance, the number of reports, the time required to complete customs procedures, and the predictability of inspections. Entrepreneurs are promised digital interaction with tax and customs authorities, a reduction in the number of permits required, and the application of the principle that the government should not repeatedly request information it already possesses.
But for an investor, administrative procedures are only one part of the operating environment. The logic of the tax system is no less important. The government can simplify company registration and transition services to an electronic format, but at the same time make building a new enterprise more expensive by taxing invested capital directly.
AmCham cites the example of Romania, where a similar tax on special structures was introduced twice and repealed twice. According to the Romanian Foreign Investors Council, the additional financial burden on companies exceeded 92 million euros. More than half of the surveyed companies stated that they would reduce or postpone investments, while a quarter intended to pass on the costs to consumers by raising prices.
In Moldova, revenue from the new levy is earmarked to fund the development and updating of building codes. The business community does not dispute the need for such work but proposes that it be funded through general government financing mechanisms rather than a separate levy on companies that invest in development.
The issue, therefore, is not just the rate itself. Even a relatively small 0.5% sends a signal: the government views an investment project as a source of additional revenue even before production begins, jobs are created, and the tax base is established.
Abandoning such a mechanism will not, in and of itself, make Moldova the most business-friendly country in Europe. But its introduction is at odds with the promise to stimulate investment. The first sign of a new economic policy may not be yet another support program, but rather the elimination of a fee that penalizes a company simply for deciding to invest. //July 22, 2026 – InfoMarket.