President Klaus Iohannis said on Friday that he had spoken to Marcel Colacu before the prime minister left for Brussels to persuade European officials to accept a bigger deficit than the 4.4% predicted by Romania for this year so that our country did not lose EU money.. Iohannis says that they also discussed VAT and that, from his point of view, the solution to cover the budget hole is not to increase VAT, but to increase the levy.

Johannis and Cholaku (archive photo)Photo: Presidency of Romania
  • “Yes, I had a discussion with the Prime Minister before he left for Brussels, whether increasing the VAT is a solution.
  • In my opinion, this is not an option, but if in the short term, with the help of experts, it is determined that certain measures need to be implemented, perhaps the government can promote them.
  • The increase or decrease of VAT has been discussed many times. Overall, I don’t think it’s a solution right now. In my opinion, the way out is to raise the level of collection, that is, to collect money that belongs to the state budget,” said Klaus Iohannis.

He made these statements on Friday after visiting the Danube Delta with his wife, Carmen Iohannis.

Marcel Cholaku is in Brussels on Friday, making his first visit since becoming prime minister.