The draft ordinance for declaring a crisis situation on the energy market does not protect the population, but rather protects a behavior of speculation on the crisis at the expense of the real economy, claims the National Trade Union Bloc, which proposes, in this context, reducing excise taxes on fuels to last year's level.
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"This OUG does not protect the population, but rather protects a behavior of speculation on the crisis at the expense of the real economy. The state wants to collect more from taxes and excise duties and passes the costs on to companies and workers. As an immediate measure to protect the population mainly, but also the business environment at the national level, the excise duty should return to the level of the end of 2025," a statement from the National Bank of Romania states.
According to the trade union confederation, limiting the commercial mark-up, the smallest part of the fuel price component at the pump, is an anti-market measure and an intervention likely to worry external financiers regarding the "functional market economy" in Romania: the state clearly conveys that it is the one who makes the business plans.
"It seems rather a measure by which the budget speculates on the energy price crisis, while continuing to collect increased excise duties and VAT at a higher fuel price - exceptional and undue revenues in a crisis situation," the cited document states.
Under these conditions, trade unionists believe that the first measure that is necessary is to reduce excise taxes on fuels to the level of December 31, 2025.
"The level of excise duties in Romania is well above the minimum accepted by the acquis communautaire. The first measure that is required is to reduce excise duties to the level of December 31, 2025, with the Romanian state maintaining additional revenues following the significant increase in VAT applied to a higher fuel price, following the evolution of international quotations," the press release also states.
According to BNS estimates, returning excise duties to the level of December 31, 2025 would lead to a decrease in prices at least equal to that proposed by the measure capping the mark-up.
Another solution proposed by the unions is a temporary decrease in VAT to 11%, from 21%, a measure already implemented in Spain.
The average pump price for a liter of gasoline in Romania was higher than those in 13 other EU-27 states (Sweden, Estonia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria). For diesel, the average pump price was, on March 16, higher than that in Malta, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Hungary, Croatia, Czech Republic, the cited source showed.
"It is time for the Romanian state to return to the economy what it has just taken - the increase in excise duties. The effects of applying a higher VAT compared to the first half of 2025, to a product resulting from refining (and to excise duties that also include the rounds of increases from January 2025 and August 2025), are more than sufficient, under the new conditions and could have a neutral effect on the budget. The Romanian state must not speculate on the crisis: an economy with shocks such as the 60% increase in the price of electricity - already produced, financed at the highest interest rates in the European Union, with unemployment induced by the recession caused by deficit reduction measures, and with the label that the state decides on companies' business plans, cannot be competitive and will rather contribute to amplifying the recession," the BNS press release emphasizes.
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