The National Statistics Institute in Bucharest prepares a new classification of economic activities (CAEN), to be published within months and enter effect on January 1, 2008. The classification contains 101 new classes of activity and is much more comprehensive than the existing one.

But the change will have some major collateral effects on firms, many of which will have to change registration certificates and renew their authorization.

New companies are facing serious difficulties with the current classification, as many activities are not included and it comes as a never-ending documentation that is very difficult to handle. Definitions and descriptions of activities are unclear and many need a law expert to help them establish a code for their activities.

According to National Statistics Institute-INS experts, the future classification will provide four new sections, 26 divisions, 48 groups and 101 classes of activitites in addition to the existing ones. That means firms will have more options to use an economic field or another.

“For example, a new section is that of “information and communication”. It takes over components from other divisions or classes that were connected to this field and groups them into a distinct section”, explains Gheorghe Constantinescu, deputy manager at the Enterprise Statistic Registry department of the INS.

And Anca Anghelescu, a judicial consultant, says that while it might be harder to discover what codes you should have, the new classification is more explicit and many troubles with the law will be avoided.

The new classification, called CAEN Rev.2, will bring about “implications at the level of public administration and economic agents, as the whole documentation referring to the codes of activity has to be changed”, says Constantinescu.

The Finance Ministry failed to answer HotNews.ro questions to explain how the changes must be applied.