Emil Boc: "The elimination of IT facilities is a mistake"

The elimination by the Government of the facilities granted to the IT sector is a mistake and has the meaning of a sudden brake on the part of our country in conditions where the EU is pressing the accelerator in the field of digitalization, declared, at the end of last week, the former prime minister Emil Boc, the liberal mayor of the municipality Cluj Napoca, for Ziua Live radio station.

Emil Boc expressed his hope that the Government will reconsider this aspect, which appears in the list of fiscal changes, and stated that, otherwise, the capacity of the IT sector will be seriously affected: "I am not satisfied with the content of the act in terms of elimination of IT facilities. It is a mistake, even if the document has been sweetened, and there is a ceiling up to which these facilities are not removed. The capacity of this sector to generate added value for Romania should not be affected".

The mayor of Cluj-Napoca claims that he had a similar proposal on the Government's table, during the time when he was prime minister, but he refused it: "In 2010, when the situation was much worse, I had the same proposal on the table and I didn't resort to removing the amenities and I was proven right. We cannot be competitive with France in agriculture, with Germany in automotive, but we can sit at the table through the IT and innovation sector. This sector is able to provide the solutions for the well-paid jobs of the future and the solutions for the green and digital transition. We are against the current. Europe presses the accelerator, we press the brakes".

Emil Boc claims that the elimination of the facilities enjoyed by employees in the IT sector will have long-term effects, including in other branches of the national economy.

We note that, according to the bill on tax changes that the Government wants to pass through Parliament by assuming responsibility, IT employees who earn more than 10,000 lei gross will have to pay income tax. At the same time, all IT employees will also have to pay CASS.