The draft on the budgetary and fiscal policy for 2024 was approved at a Cabinet meeting on June 21. The draft includes conceptual and systemic changes of optimization of the fiscal administration and is aimed at solving the economic constraints found out by tax payers, identifying instruments of residents’ support, as well as continuing the process of Moldovan legislation’s approximation to the European Union’s practices.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean said the government got into normality; the budgetary and fiscal policy was approved in the middle of the year and thus, the business environment and the citizens would get that very predictability and have half a year to prepare for the next financial and fiscal cycle.
“The most important changes this year regard the focusing on people. We have a deficit of qualified labour force. The government works to invest in the labour force to enhance it productivity, so as we increase the salaries and revenues to the budget and respectively, we can increase the salaries and pensions for the other social categories from the budget revenues. The budgetary and fiscal policy for the next year implies more personal deductions, more deductible expenses in the favour of the employee for real estate projects. This will represent an efficient and additional alternative to projects dealing with financing prior to the purchasing of real estate for families. Other expenses stipulated are the ones dealing with staff, social and health insurances,” Dorin Recean added.
According to Finance Minister Veronica Sireteanu, the main goals proposed in the document target the implementation of instruments of attracting qualified labour force, as well as the revision of mechanisms of calculation and payment of taxes, in order to simplify them.
Thus, to maintain the qualified labour force, attract new specialists and diversify the “social package” provided to employees, the government extends the spectrum of fiscal stimuli through revising the categories of expenses borne by the employer in favour of employees, allowed for deduction on fiscal purposes, such as: compensation of expenses for alternative child-care services, providing of support subscriptions, expenditures for employees’ qualification, expenses related to the contracting of medical services, limited to a quantum which will now allow, according to the ministry, to use these facilities in order to replace the basic payments. At the same time, the draft sees the increase of the deductible ceiling for the optional health insurances premiums, as well as the introduction of regulations for the expenses for food and transport borne for probationers and/or apprentices.
Additionally, the drafts proposes the extension of the categories of deductions for the private people at the establishment of the obligations related to the income tax with expenses related to the optional health insurance premiums, expenses related to the premium based on the contract on life insurance, the sums paid by the private person for the interests related to mortgage loans when buying the first dwelling, other than the ones contracted through the First Home state programme.
The document also sees the standardization of the quotas of the income taxes for private people, retained for the investment and financial incomes, through establishing them at 6%. The measure’s goal is to stimulate the investment of the savings gained by private people, through the enforcement of a single regime on all aforementioned incomes.
The practice of establishing the rates of excise duties for a period of 3 years (2024-2026) will be continued, in order to ensure the fulfillment of the principle of predictability for the business environment, as well as for having a clear-cut forecast of the budget revenues. Thus, the tax on the excisable products, including tobacco, cider and some oil products will increase by 7% annually in the next three years, except for some categories of products, such as the liquefied gas, crude oil, beer or alcohol.
To observe the commitments of adjusting the fiscal and customs legislation, the fiscal regime applied to touring cars is changed, through taxing these vehicles with value added tax according to general principles starting from January 1, 2025, with the gradual decreasing of the excise duty’s quota.
This year, the Finance Ministry worked out and presented the fiscal policy, by observing the budgetary calendar. (Moldpres/Business World Magazine)
