The Finance Ministry must explain whether OMV Petrom will pay the solidarity tax imposed by the emergency decree, President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday, noting that the Finance Ministry initiated the regulation, which the Energy Ministry had not announced. informed. Recall that at the beginning of the year, OMV Petrom announced that it does not plan to pay solidarity tax in the 2022 financial year, and PNL blames the PSD for the way in which the European regulation, which sets the limits for which OMV pays or does not pay solidarity tax, was transferred.

• “Whether he will pay or not, you will be told for sure by those who made the regulations, that is, the Ministry of Finance.
• I was a little surprised when, after the approval, I learned how this matter was discussed and learned that, for example, the Department of Energy was not included in the discussion.
• This issue was discussed at the finance level, which is good in principle, because we are talking about a fee or a tax. But I was informed that this act is being worked out.
• My request was only one thing: that this act be legal and clear, meaning that it does not violate any directive or law in force in Romania, and be so clear that there is no debate as to whether it is or not. We all see the result on TV: they debate for days whether it is true or not. I believe that those who worked on the document should come and clarify it. Nothing is lost,” said Iohannis, answering questions from the European Council in Brussels.

He also noted that “shifting the blame from one political court to another political court does not solve the problem.”

Financial director and member of the board of OMV Petrom, Alina Popa, said on February 2 that OMV does not have a solidarity tax in our country, but if ANAF comes to a different conclusion, the company will pay. She also said that earlier this year, ANAF conducted an audit to verify the turnover and its structure.

At the end of last year, the government passed GEO (186/2022), according to which the additional profit of producers of crude oil, gas and oil refineries will be taxed at a rate of 60%. The tax base is an amount that is more than 20% higher than the average profit for the last four years.

At the beginning of the year, OMV Petrom announced that it would not pay the solidarity tax introduced by the Government at the end of last year, with less than 75% of turnover from the specified sectors: crude oil production, natural gas production, oil extraction and production of refined products.

The European Commission has responded to the Romanian government, which asked for clarification after the Austrian company announced that it will not pay solidarity tax this year because it does not fall under the provisions of the regulation, having less than 75% of its turnover from the defined sectors: oil production, natural gas production, oil production and production of oil refining products.

PSD spokesman Radu Oprea said on Digi FM on Tuesday that the response received from the European Commission shows that the threshold of 75% of turnover from taxable sectors (crude oil production, natural gas production, oil production and production of products obtained from oil refining) cannot be reduced.

“The answer came from the European Commission, there are three points in the answer. The first refers to 75%, to this percentage of turnover, where the commission responds that by regulation this is the minimum that can be applied. So Romania applied the provision correctly, you cannot reduce it. The Commission’s second reply states that the five CAEN codes from the European regulation are correctly applied in the emergency regulation, and there is another question that says whether the products obtained as a result of processing, diesel fuel, gasoline, if they are included in these codes Here, the European Commission responds that they need more details to better understand the business model,” said Radu Oprea, quoted by Digi 24. in this matter.