In an interview with Digi24 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku answered some questions from PNL leader Nicolae Chuke about taxes and Tier II pensions, but he noted that these questions were “asked by consultants”. ” is a surprise for him, given that it is about topics that have already been agreed upon in the coalition.

Present in the Digi24 studio, Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku received several questions sent by the leaders of the main parliamentary parties, reports Agerpres. Thus, PNL President Nicolae Chuke asked the Prime Minister if he agreed to maintain the commitment not to increase fees and taxes in 2024, not to change the II level of pensions and to increase teachers’ salaries to reach 50% of the new official salary in 2024 .

“I liked Mr. Nikolay Chuke better, the natural, real Nikolay Chuke. The questions asked by the consultants are a surprise to me, especially in the voice of Mr. Nicolae Chuke, whom we all know very well. (…) Minister of Finance this time from PNL. Minister of Education – from PNL. I assume that these were some rhetorical questions,” answered Marcel Cholaku.

In addition, the Prime Minister emphasized that he is a supporter of Tier II pensions and that Romania has committed through the PNRR to increase employee contributions to Tier II to 4.75% from January 1, 2024, and he would not be able to apply a postponement of this term without PNL ministers, as well as because he knows about the violation of PNRR’s obligations to the European Commission. He revealed that while the idea to postpone the deadline for the application of the 4.75% interest rate for the Tier II contribution came from the Ministry of Finance, the political decision rests with the coalition and its two co-presidents.

“I believe in the parallel pension system. I, Marcel Cholaku, believe in this system. (…) We set ourselves a milestone, which we fulfilled. We, in the coalition, have decided that this applies from January 1, 2024. If I change the date – and I could not do it myself, only together with the PNL ministers, to answer Mr. Chuke rhetorically – the Commission would come and say: “Mr. Cholak, you see that the stage in the payment request No. 1 that you fulfilled and we gave you money for it, you see we are taking your money back because in the meantime you have made changes to the milestone’. Who would think of that? If someone thought in ANAF or in finance, he thought as a technician, as an employee. I can’t even blame the man for that. I certainly won’t blame them, I can’t blame the minister either. But the political decision is up to us, the co-presidents of this coalition. This element was not even discussed,” said Cholaku.

Marcel Cholaku: “I told Bolos: you create more than we can read. STOP!”

He also noted that financial workers are getting increased privacy and noted that their proposals only come into force if they are politically supported by the coalition. On the other hand, the Prime Minister said that the Minister of Finance Marcel Bolosh “produces” many changes.

“There are some people from ANAF, those from finance… For example, this is not the first time I say to Mr. Bolos: “You produce more than we can read. You have seven amendments to the famous “Trenuleţ” decree. , as it is called, given before the state budget. Stop!” However, the employees of “Finance” have increased confidentiality. You can’t take documents and give them to the media. Because you are bad. What they produce, then a political decision is made, as is normal. In Romania, the coalition government has suggested that it will increase the percentage in the second level up to 4.75. A significant amount, let’s be honest. Almost 6 billion of budget funds,” said the prime minister.

Regarding a possible increase in taxes, Çolaku emphasized that he agrees with Nikolae Chuke that such an increase will not happen.

“I don’t have to answer him on TV because we agreed on this together. I myself did not agree. It would be elegant to answer: “we both agreed not to raise taxes.” This is a stage 206 issue relating to micro-enterprises. It is in payment requirement No. 3 – the commission still does not consider it fulfilled. We have our arguments that we cannot change the limits during the financial year. It has just been changed to 500,000 – this is also a decision of the current coalition. But we will go and explain the stages of achieving this milestone”, – also stated Marcel Cholaku.

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