Vegetable growers accuse: RO e-Transport, a system with many problems

Vegetable growers in our country claim that the RO e-Transport system is one that contains several blockages, which lead to the failure to obtain the UIT code for the transport of these products, according to a press release sent to the Editor. That is why they addressed an open letter to the ANAF president and the Minister of Agriculture, in which they show that the ANAF website cannot cope with the high volume of processes during busy periods.

"The products obtained by our members - producers of potatoes, vegetables, fruits and melons, were introduced by ANAF President's Order no. 12/2022 for products with high fiscal risk, traded in the B2B relationship, although they are legal entities that have concluded contracts for the majority of the production, register in the system and create an electronic invoice that can be confirmed and verified at any time, with 100% taxation. In the harvest campaigns, the ANAF website cannot cope with the high volume of processes, especially during busy periods when accountants have to upload the necessary declarations and documents. Periodic tax registrations and declarations are sometimes impossible to operate because the platform constantly crashes, gives errors or is no longer accessible for periods of several hours. There were cases when it took up to 3 hours to register and get the UIT code or it gave an error even after 4-5 hours and could not be issued due to the insufficient operating capacity of the website. What do we do in this case? How do we proceed so that the horticultural production does not degrade and the producer/supplier-transporter and the buyer do not receive a fine?", say the representatives of vegetable growers in our country.

They state that vegetables, fruits and melons are perishable and during the summer they deteriorate quickly if kept for a few more hours and increase the quantities refused and unpaid by buyers/retailers. "There are also differences between the gross goods and the net goods paid, which will be found out by the supplier, optimistically a few days after delivery, but we understand that canceled invoices are made if there is a difference between the amount invoiced and the amount accepted for payment and actually collected. The main problem here is that ANAF takes the initially invoiced amounts, including when settling the VAT, it is not calibrated with the existing balance sheet/balance sheets and differences appear that are very difficult to clarify/rectify and much more bureaucratically. Make sure the e-Transport platform is stable, easy to use and capable of handling large volumes of data. Technical difficulties can create chaos, unnecessary losses and delays!" say the vegetable growers.

They mention that logistical bottlenecks occur in the potato, vegetable-fruit harvesting campaign, when many trucks are loaded that, if the system is blocked and they do not get the UIT code, they will not be able to go on the race until the system is unlocked.

In the press release, signed by the representatives of the National Potato Federation, the Union of the National Branch of Cooperatives in the Vegetable Sector, the Union of the National Branch of Horticultural Cooperatives in Romania - HORT INTEGRA, the Association of Groups and Organizations of Agricultural Producers - FRULEG-RO and the National Association of Romanian Agro-food Cooperatives - COOP RO, propose that, in order to facilitate the registration activity, within a few days or at the end of the week, the package of invoices and data necessary for the marketing of vegetables and fruits should be centralized and sent to ANAF .

We mention that during this period, mixed teams made up of ANAF inspectors and police officers carry out traffic controls regarding the compliance with the RO e-Transport legislation, controls that resulted in drastic contraventional sanctions, of tens of thousands of lei, but also with seized goods worth hundreds of thousands of lei. Some of the sanctioned freight carriers claim that the interpretation of the legislation by ANAF inspectors leaves room for suspicion, especially since in most cases, the sanctions applied by the police are those established by ANAF inspectors.