Employers' Confederation Concordia criticizes the government's unrealistic estimates, warning of the risk of repeating the problems of 2023.

Employers' Confederation Concordia warns of undue optimism about the Budget for 2024, saying the Government's estimates are exaggerated.  ANAF is proposing to collect 30 billion lei more than the previous year, even though it collected 12 billion lei less than estimated in 2023.

The government places optimistic expectations on the European funds and the PNRR, estimating more than 60 billion lei, while the preliminary execution for 2023 indicates less than 29 billion lei, Agerpres reports. Concordia argues that building the budget on the basis of unrealistic estimates may put additional pressure on taxpayers and the business environment, especially in the context of the economic slowdown.

Concordia representatives appreciate the government's intention to combat tax evasion, but stress the importance of making public spending more efficient. The report also criticizes insufficient public consultation, undermining the credibility of the social dialogue process.

The Fiscal Council's analysis warns that the inclusion of hypothetical revenues of 19 billion lei in the budget projection, coming from the streamlining of ANAF collection/digitisation, cannot be taken into account. It is indicated that the actual revenue collected could be around 19 billion lei lower, representing 1.1% of GDP, compared to the proposed targets.

The Confederation proposes to build the budget on realistic estimates, taking into account the experience of 2023, when the budget was built on unrealistic revenue estimates.