VAT refund for economic agents from Gagauzia is to be made in the future from the autonomy's budget, not from the state budget.
This is stipulated by the relevant amendments to the Tax Code, proposed by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Economy, Budget and finance, Radu Marian. He told at a news briefing on Tuesday that he has drafted and will soon register in Parliament a relevant bill to establish more fairness in the relations between the state budget and the budget of the Gagauz autonomy. Radu Marian recalled that now the Gagauz autonomy's budget is formed by collecting on the territory of the autonomy profit tax from legal entities, VAT on goods and services produced or rendered in Gagauzia, as well as excise duties on goods produced on the autonomy's territory. He emphasized that, thus, ATU Gagauzia enjoys budgetary autonomy, but there are situations when economic agents from Gagauzia, who have the right to benefit from the VAT refund from the budget, are paid not from the autonomy's budget, but from the national budget. Radu Marian considers this approach unfair, as the autonomy collects VAT from its budget, but the VAT refund to its economic agents is made from the national budget, not from the budget of ATU Gagauzia. The Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Economy, Budget and Finance said that this provision was introduced in 2004, and only in the last 5 years, the state budget has returned more than 640 million lei of VAT to economic agents from the Gagauz autonomy. Radu Marian said that the draft law he elaborated is meant to eliminate this injustice. It is planned to amend the Tax Code, according to which the VAT refund to economic agents from Gagauzia will be made from the autonomy's budget within the available funds, while the amounts that cannot be covered will be compensated by special-purpose remittances from the state budget. According to him, such measures are expected to bring savings to the national budget in the amount of 500 million lei within 5 years, and this money can be used for other purposes, for the implementation of different programs for the whole country, not only for one autonomy. "We respect the principle of autonomy, but all localities in the country and citizens from different regions deserve to benefit equally from different government programs and funds," he said. //18.07.2023 - InfoMarket.
