The government is working on a plan to reduce taxation

Prime Minister Emil Boc said there are 558 taxes at present, included in 185 documents, “and, unfortunately, for many of these taxes, it costs more to administer them than to actually take the money by applying them.”

“We will make a cost-benefit analysis for each tax and tariff, and will decide whether to keep them or not,” said Minister of Finance, Gheorghe Pogea. He added that he expects “that the business environment will benefit from much better predictability,” once the draft of the new fiscal code is finalized. The government is expected to publish this draft within two weeks, once it is analyzed by “experts.” Pogea added that the government set as target the finalizing of the new fiscal code in this year’s first half, with changes going into effect as of 2010.

The government founded the loan counter-guarantee fund for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) on Wednesday, worth €100 million, to “maintain and create new jobs,” Boc said.