The governing coalition is set to meet on Monday, at the Victoria Palace, in order to decide on the new measures to ease rising fuel prices, political sources told AGERPRES.
The meeting, scheduled for 13:00, will take place at the level of deputy prime ministers and ministers, without the presence of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and the Save Romania Union (USR) leaders.
Ahead of the coalition meeting, on Monday morning, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan chaired a working meeting in which scenarios and figures were presented regarding the measures the Government is preparing to implement in order to curb fuel price increases.
On Sunday, Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan underscored that a real drop in pump prices can be achieved either by reducing VAT or by proportionally cutting excise duties.
"Tomorrow, there will be a highly practical working meeting on scenarios related to what I said a month ago, namely that a real reduction in the final pump price can come, beyond market regulation mechanisms, beyond mechanisms for adjusting commercial mark-ups and extra taxation on exceptional profits, only from two sources directly linked to the fiscal component of fuel prices. These are either a reduction of VAT, which has been applied in some European countries, but remains an option in Romania, or a proportional reduction of excise duties, with a very clear mechanism," Ivan told a press conference in Braila.
He underscored that in this period, the Romanian state is receiving additional revenue from rising prices, through extra VAT collection.
"All additional revenue collected by the Ministry of Finance during this period, March plus the three months of the fuel crisis, is calculated, and all these funds are returned to people's pockets in a very clear and transparent way. This is something that neither I nor the Social Democratic Party will give up. This was a decision communicated to me by my colleagues through the voice of Chairman Sorin Grindeanu and it is completely non-negotiable," Ivan added.
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