Save Romania Union (USR) MP Catalin Drula accuses the Government of violating the provisions of the Fiscal Code through the ordinance on some fiscal-budgetary measures that is on the agenda of Monday's meeting of the Executive.
The former USR leader drew attention to the fact that, according to the law, a minimum of six months is required before the changes to the Fiscal Code come into force.
"How can taxes increase overnight? Answer: legally, constitutionally, it should not be possible. The Fiscal Code provides for a minimum of 6 months before any changes come into force. The Ciolacu 2 government has granted exemption from this provision through the Austerity OUG [Emergency Ordinance]. A clearly unconstitutional action. You can't ignore a framework law whenever it is not to your taste. That's not how the rule of law works. No surprise here. Ciolacu continues the same immoral, illegal and irresponsible policies. Now we also see why he did not want to show us this draft OUG at the negotiations. It is still sad that he does these actions with the complicity of PNL [the National Liberal Party]," Catalin Drula wrote on Facebook.
He maintained that prime minister Marcel Ciolacu "will go down in history as an economic criminal", after having "destroyed the country's finances while his party's clientele grew". According to the USR representative, the bill will be borne by the private sector "suffocated and throttled by new taxes".
Catalin Drula recalled that PSD and PNL representatives promised that "no tax will be increased" in 2025.
In his turn, the coordinator of the Public Policy Department of USR, Cristian Ghinea, reproached the Government for having directed "a lot of money" into "inflating the budgetary apparatus".
"Marcel Ciolacu continues to tell us that the huge budget deficit that Romania currently has appeared so suddenly, out of the blue, like an unexpected weather phenomenon, as if he was not the one to take us to 9% with his irresponsible spending. Moreover, Ciolacu is trying to convince us that, in fact, this deficit was meant to do us good, we are probably also ungrateful that today we are on the verge of fiscal apocalypse. That, in fact, he ran deficits to make 'investments'. It's like saying: 'Sir, I have big debts in the bank, but there's no problem, because I bought my car, I bought my coat, I bought my hat, I bought my expensive cigarettes! There's no problem, I made investments!'. This is absurd," Ghinea wrote on Facebook.
According to Ghinea, the authorities have "failed" to attract European funds, but have "irrationally" increased investments that they cannot maintain.
"A responsible government knows that investments should be prioritized, if you have less money, not to throw money out the window in the hope that it will bring you votes. That's what they did. And now they complain about the heavy inheritance," added the USR representative.