Prime Minister Florin Citu: PNL senators are working on a bill amending tax evasion legislation

Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Wednesday that senators of the National Liberal Party (PNL) are working on a bill to amend the law that says persons accused of tax evasion up to 100,000 euros who repay the damage in full shall be fined instead of sentenced to prison, agerpres reports.

"I know very well that there are already PNL lawmakers who considered the bill last week and who will come up with changes. There are some colleagues in the Senate. I don't want to name names so that they can come up and introduce the bill. So I already know that legislative initiatives on this issue are being worked out," the prime minister told a news conference at the Government House.

He said that he had asked for an assessment to see how the law could be amended and that he would present the results of the analysis to the ruling coalition.

"I also asked for an evaluation to see the impact. At the moment, we can only do a legislative evaluation. I have asked my constitutional advisers for an evaluation to see if something can be done, and how to amend the law. When I receive the analysis I will present it to the coalition. Snuffing out tax evasion is an important objective of this government. It is pledged both in its tax and budget strategy, and in the convergence plan, and in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and we have already taken important measures that have yielded results. I want to remind you that last and this year, voluntary compliance has increased in Romania. We have much higher government revenues, but it is important that we have increased revenues and we also have voluntary compliance. So things are going in the right direction, in terms of rooting out tax evasion," said Citu.

PNL national chairman Ludovic Orban said on April 2 that, if there is a will, there can be amended the law that says persons accused of tax evasion up to 100,000 euros who repay the damage in full shall be fined instead of sentenced to prison.

"Certainly, PNL voted against the law. The president promulgated it as that is his constitutional attribute, he did not make the law. He exercised his powers. If there is a will to amend this legal provision, it will be amended," Orban said.

On March 31, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated a bill amending and supplementing Law 241/2005 for the prevention and combating of tax evasion that says persons accused of tax evasion up to 100,000 euros who repay the damage in full shall be fined instead of sentenced to prison.

The Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation - United Sections, the Romanian Government and the Ombudsman singled out the law to the Constitutional Court as unconstitutional, but the court ruled otherwise.

According to the law, fine could be a penalty in case of tax evasion offenses, if during the criminal investigation or trial the damage incurred - which value does not exceed 100,000 euros equivalent of the national currency - is fully recovered. If the damage caused and recovered under the same conditions is up to 50,000 euros equivalent of the national currency, the penalty shall be a fine.