Presidential aide: One point VAT increase would bring 500 million euro to the budget

Miercuri, 7 octombrie 2009, 20:21 English | Business

A VAT increase by one percentage point would bring supplementary funds of 500 million euro to the budget, Ionut Popescu, a presidential aide on economic issues, believes, as quoted by Romanian news agency NewsIn. He said that between a VAT increase and a higher flat tax he would recommend an increase of VAT.

But he said for Romanian news channel Realitatea TV that the issue - which has come up in the media this week - has not been discussed so far and that a VAT increase would not be an issue of official talks this year.

Finance minister Gheorghe Pogea said on Tuesday that the Government might consider a reform of budget revenues suggesting that a VAT increase might be possible.