The new minimum tax imposed by the government will gather up some 277 million euro by the end of the year, three times more than the officials estimated, one newspaper reads on Monday. Elsewhere in the news, PM Emil Boc plans to cut the list containing some 256 European and political agencies under its subordination. On a lighter tone, Romania can brag with its first National Geographic documentary, portraying a 14 year old Romanian, Coco Popescu getting ready to conquer Cho Oyu peak from Nepal (8,201 m).

A new scandal is about to start between the governing coalition, as PM Emil Boc sustains the flat tax while the Social Democrats, even if they proposed it, are against, Gandul reads. The tax will bring about some 277 million euro in the budget, over three times more than the initial official estimates.

In only two months, the state gathered some 69 million euro from over 65% of the companies, Romania's Fiscal Administration Agency President Sorin Blejnar reads. When the fiscal obligation was first introudcted, the Finance ministry was expecting some 350 million lei in eight months. Blejnar said that the introduction of the tax was perfect, as it brought a revenue of 22.25 million lei.

The newspaper reads however, that many companies were compelled to close their businesses precisely because of the new minimum tax, obliging them to pay to the state somewhere between 500 to 10,000 euro/year. There are no statistics to correlate the relation however.

Finance ministry data shows that some 102,000 companies who registered in 2008 an average business profit of 200 euro/month were obliged to shut their business.

Also in politics today, European and political agencies under the Chancellery can avoid being restructured, after the Prime Minister informed that he plans to cut to half the 256 agencies currently functioning Gandul reads.

Some of the agencies are protected by some European directives as they represent their European counterparts in Romania. The newspaper reads that some 2,000 employees from governmental agencies might be laid off together with some 20,000 public servants from the public administration.

Cotidianul reads about Romania's first National Geographic documentary portraying 14 year old Romanian Crina Coco Popescu getting ready to conquer peak Cho Oyu from Nepal at 8,201 meters. If the expedition will be successful, Coco will become the youngest person in the world to reach the peak and the youngest in the world to reach a 8,000 meter peak.

The expedition is planned for August 25 to October 19 and the young girl will be accompanied by her father and trainer in the same time, Ovidiu Popescu and director Calin Vrabie, National Geographic Channel Romania production director who will tape the expedition.