Excise duties removed for digital cameras once more

The Romanian ITC industry yesterday achieved a success few had expected: the Romanian Parliament voted to remove excise duties for digital cameras and video cameras, as well other electronic products from the new Fiscal Code.

“Victory!” proclaimed Varujan Pambuccian, the head of the Chamber of Deputies ITC committee. “This is more than a success because, besides photo cameras, excise duties were also dropped for video cameras, DVD players and radio dual-cassette stereo systems. Also the tax on Internet advertising was dropped, which will breathe new life into online advertising and electronic commerce,” Pambuccian told Ziarul Financiar.

The new law will come into force after being approved by the president and published in the Official Gazette, which, says Pambuccian, could take less than a month.

“Nobody believed me (that excise duties would be dropped) after the proposal was turned down by the Budget-Finance Committee,” he said. “Today, when I thanked all the MPs for voting in favour, I said, ?”Trust me, I know what I”m doing”: the market will grow, both for cameras and for the other products. How I managed to make them change their minds? That”s my business.” The 25% duty levied on digital cameras was dropped on January 1, 2005.

Until that time, Romania was one of the last countries in Europe to treat such products as luxury goods. Although the market response to the move was extremely positive (experts say sales rose between 3 to 5 times in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2004), excise duties were reintroduced for digital cameras towards the end of March at 30%, 5% higher than before, as part of a measure to boost budget revenues by 16,000bn ROL. However, this was changed by the new Fiscal Code that was enacted yesterday.