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The Romanian government’s planned tax adjustment measures will not affect culture, youth and sports, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in Bucharest on Wednesday.
According to the report by Romanian news agency Agerpres, the politician was responding to a question at a university forum that the cabinet wants to implement administrative reforms and tax adjustments, and curb tax evasion, as Romania is one of the EU member states with the highest tax evasion rates.
I can promise now that no tax adjustment measure will affect youth or cultural activities”,
Marcel Ciolacu said. At the same time, he stressed that the state could no longer afford such a “bloated” apparatus.
In a statement Wednesday, Cristian Ghinea, head of the public policy department of the opposition party Save Romania Union (USR), accused the government of imitating austerity measures, while the Economy Ministry has two sets of directors since it was merged with the Tourism Ministry, creating a double apparatus. He added that these directors received “real” salaries, while freezing vacant positions did not bring real savings.
The threat posed to cultural institutions by the austerity plans was also highlighted by Culture Minister Raluca Turcan, who on Tuesday made a submission to Finance Minister Marcel Boloș, also sending it to the head of government. In the letter, she pointed out that
61 percent of cultural institutions – 285 in total – would cease to exist as legal entities if the government’s draft emergency decree is approved.
Hunor Kelemen, chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR), also spoke out against the harmful effects of the austerity measures on culture and called on the prime minister to reject the draft. The plan would have a huge impact on Hungarian cultural institutions, especially the theaters and museums of small towns in Szeklerland, which are also protesting against it.
Via Ungarn Heute. Featured image: Attila Torró via Facebook/sepsiszentgyorgy.info