Empty-handed budget

The state budget did not collect the fuel excise-related revenues in Q1 as planned. Albeit the major producers claim they are on schedule with their payments and Industry minister Dan Ioan Popescu was saying earlier this week that the collection rate reaches 85%-90%, the Finance Ministry figures and the agreements with the IMF are pushing for a rise in excises. The gas excise collection rate was below the anticipated level in the first quarter, due to the lower consumption and to the large amounts of counterfeit products on the market, Dan Ioan Popescu on Wednesday explained. Earlier this week he had said it would not be a good idea to raise fuel excises, as “the budget registers an 85%-90% fuel excise collection rate.” Things turned out to be quite different in the meantime, though. The producers and importers actually sold only 65% of what they had told the Finance Ministry they would and paid excises accounting for only 35% of what was supposed to be paid. “The evaluations of the IMF experts and of the Finance Ministry revealed that the excise collection level in Q1 is not the one scheduled in the agreement with the IMF,” Florin Georgescu, PSD (Social Democrat Party) vice-president said. He added this jeopardised the budgetary deficit target and explained one of the first emergency steps to take was raising fuel excises. The Industry and Resources Ministry and the Finance Ministry were supposed to present a report on the amount of oil products sold on the domestic market and on the excise payment options during the Government session yesterday. ZF