Court of Accounts: Underground economy in Romania exceeds EUR 50 bn

'Talking about the underground economy, and you know I deal with the macro-economy as well, and it is true what the (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) OECD says, and by my calculations, too, the underground economy exceeds 50 billion euros in Romania, every year. This is the reality. Then, the problem is why do we borrow money from abroad and pay interests and commissions, why do we take no measures, ' said Vacaroiu.

He also exemplified how tax evasion on bread can be fought against very easily, stressing that it was the easiest solution for a tax collector, namely it must be calculated how much bread is made monthly at a certain electricity consumption, and then the bread production can be calculated right by reading the electricity meter of the bread factory.

According to the data provided by the Employer Association in Milling and Bakery Industry - Rompan, the tax evasion in bread industry stands for higher than one billion euros. The bakery industry shareholders proposed the Finance Ministry many a time to take several steps to combat the tax evasion, and one of them was to cut to 5-7 percent the VAT on the wheat-flour-bread chain.

The expected effects show that the revenues to the state budget will not go down, because the taxation base becomes wider, and the black market comes to light. Likewise, the shareholder associations believe that this will be in favor of the fair economic units and it will create the prerequisites for the required investments in the food safety and the environment and quality terms that the EU claims.