Incentives for IT companies are stuck on paper

In spite of official statements regarding support for IT development in Romania, companies operating in this field will not be granted the promised incentives very soon.

“The enforcement of fiscal incentives for the IT field is not possible in the short run, as it requires a high amount of work and information, as well as tools for monitoring the incentives’ impact on the companies operating in this field,” Sabin Chiricescu, State Secretary within the Communication and IT Ministry, on Tuesday told the “Process Automation & IT” conference.

The Romanian official did not specify the date when incentives aimed at IT companies might be enforced, but he revealed two approaches: partial refunding of taxes paid by these companies to the state budget or free granting of fixed assets to companies pledging to run large investments.

According to the Communication and IT Ministry estimates, investments in the IT field will reach 500 million dollars this year, while the 2003 target is more than 1.5 billion dollars, Mediafax reports.

“A share of these investments will be made with partial or total state budget financing, while the rest is expected to be invested by the private sector,” Chiricescu added.

IT industry development and the attraction of foreign investments are conditioned by quick automation of the production process. “Automation in the production process may cut one company’s costs by 15-20%,” Chiricescu said.

“Granting fiscal incentives to the IT field is a must, as these companies should be allowed to motivate their employees, which is quite difficult now, due to the high taxes.

On the other hand, fiscal incentives help these companies to boost their activity,” Vlad ?epelea, the President of the National Association of Software Enterprises (ANIS), added.

“Process Automation & IT,” organised by BM Ventures with the support of Honeywell Romania, aims to introduce and develop the automation processes and automation management systems at an industrial scale.