The Save Romania Union (USR) does not agree, at this moment, with the increase or introduction of new taxes, the USR interim national leader Dominic Fritz said on Wednesday, adding that the first step would be to cut expenses and that layoffs should also be made in the public sector where the apparatus is „overweight”.
Fritz said at the Parliament House after presidential consultations that in order to narrow the government deficit, the first step would be to cut expenses, then to better collect taxes and VAT and only if, after these stages, there is a shortage of money, to start talks on tax increases.
„Let’s cut them all, draw a line at the end and then see if we still lack money. The truth is – and Bolojan said it very well – that now the Romanian state spends much more money than it can afford and those who lend us money have also caught on, because they no longer trust that we will be able to pay back the debts. Therefore, the first step must be to cut off everything we cannot afford – and that will be a tough negotiation, because there will indeed be measures that are not pleasant for those who are targeted by them. Then, the second step is to make sure that the taxes that now exist are also collected. A third of the VAT is not even collected. Well, why punish those who already pay VAT with an even higher VAT and those who currently do tax evasion remain untouched?! After agreeing on all these things, if we still lack money, then we can start talking about raising taxes. Otherwise, it would be against the citizens of Romania who have borne and who already bear most of this burden would be absolutely irresponsible,” Fritz said, when asked what USR will do if it comes to tax increases.
He added that it is time not to spend more money than there is. „Let’s not put our hands even deeper into the pockets of citizens.”
Asked if USR would agree to layoffs in the public sector, the USR leader said: „Yes, of course, where the apparatus is overweight, where there are institutions that have no real effect on the quality of life of the citizens.”
„Of course, those who work there have to look for another purpose and be productive elsewhere, because there are too many areas in the Romanian state where the relationship between the expenses we have and the positive impact on citizens is broken and we have to remake the connection, to spend money where we improve public services for citizens. Where someone sits in an office and plays Candy Crush on public money, that’s where we have to close’.
He also said that USR does not support the suspension of payments for investment, mentioning that an analysis must be made of the projects that have really already started to see what are important strategic projects.
AGERPRES
