VALERIU TABĂRĂ: Tax evasion for fruit and vegetables will fall over 90%, once we get reverse taxation

Tax evasion in the vegetable and fruit sector will fall by more than 90%, if the European Commission accepted the request of the Romanian government to enact reverse taxation, said Valeriu Tabără, the minister of agriculture: "We have submitted our request to allow reverse taxation for fruits and vegetables about one month ago. We hope that this time we will receive the answer quicker than in the case of grains, when the European Commission gave us the answer after two months".

He said that in the very near future, actions will be made to obtain access to the reverse taxation of meat. Concurrently, the government is also taking steps to obtain the lifting of the restrictions on Romania"s exports of pork meat. Minister Tabără said: "I am certain that these things will happen, and that the level of evasion will fall significantly, by more than 90%".

Mugur Durgheu, Managing Partner at accounting firm "Finaco Grup" proposes that, in the absence of reverse taxation for fruit, vegetables, meat and meat products, taxable operations such as wholesale trade and intra-community acquisitions for such goods only be taxed at 5%, while the VAT rate for retail and cash&carry trade would remain unchanged.

Valeriu Tabără said that, at this time, the VAT rate can not be changed, "as this is a matter of general agreement".

The cut of this tax can not be applied exclusively to one link of the commercial chain, said Liviu Voinea, the president of the Applied Economics Group (GEA): "If the VAT were cut, that measure would need to apply to the entire chain".

Dragoş Cabat, the president of the Romanian Association of Financial Analysts, has a similar opinion, and claims that fraud and tax evasion are caused by corruption: "Even if we were to have a VAT rate of 2%, those who do not want to pay still wouldn"t. That is why we first of all need to take steps for its eradication".

Reverse taxation and the eradication of corruption are the solutions to fighting tax evasion in these sectors, the reduction of the VAT could create a precedent, considers analyst Constantin Rudniţchi, spokesperson for the Romanian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The fighting of illicit acts in the case of intra-community trading has caused the inclusion of an investigation among the objectives of the governing program, according to the representatives of the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF). Thus, the Fraud Squad has performed investigations at the border crossing points and in Romania, both by accompanying shipments all the way to their destination, when there was a suspicion that they would elude the payment of VAT by selling the merchandise to dummy companies, as well as by performing investigations at the beneficiaries of the purchased goods.

According to the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF), in the first six months of the year over 20,000 tons of vegetables and fruit and about 330,000 kg of meat and meat products were seized.