Romania suspends tax on stock market gains

Miercuri, 24 septembrie 2008, 13:48 English | Business

Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian announced that the Government suspends the tax on stock market trade profits for 2009, in order to encourage the stock market development. At the same time, Gabriela Anghelache, president of the National Securities Commission (CNVM), announced that the 0.08% tax players had to pay on each transaction is suspended from October 1 to the end of the year. CNVM will also give up the income from listing new companies during the next six months.

"We had to choose between zero income for the state budget and a blocked stock market and zero income with a functional market", said Vosganian.

The reactions to the measures announced today are different. Ionut Popescu, former Economy Minister and editor-in-chief of the financial weekly magazine Capital says that the actions are good and will lead to the development of the stock market. Cristian Sima, international trader and president of WBS Holding, believes that the measures are "stupid", priorities being elsewhere, namely in the way heads of the Financial Investment Societies (SIFs) are named and replaced. "In any market, the managers of a fund that loses 80% in one year would have packed up and went home", says Sima, who argues that the 1% holding limit for SIF shares makes the replacement of managers impossible, due to a very dispersed shareholders group.