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IMF: Any exemption for fuel excise increase must be compensated by other measures’
Any exemption from the payment of the additional fuel excise introduced on April 1 must be compensated by measures “with powerful impact”, so as not to jeopardize the budget deficit target assumed by the government, said the head of the IMF Mission in Romania, Andrea Schaechter.
The fuel excise is an important element in reaching budget deficit targets and any decision to grant exemptions for transporters of heavy trucks would create a fiscal void which must be compensated by measures with powerful impact, so that the budget deficit targets for this and the following year should be reached, said Schaechter at a press conference.
The government assumed the IMF accord with a budget deficit of 2.2% of GDP for 2014.
Romania has benefitted from the confidence of financial markets in the context of volatilities recorded in emerging markets early this year and the authorities should not jeopardize this confidence, the IMF official added.
The fuel excise raise by 7 eurocents per liter came into force on Tuesday, leading to the increase of gasoline, kerosene and diesel oil prices by 0.41 lei/liter, according to Finance Ministry estimates.
According to previous calculations the fuel excise will bring about 2.5 billion lei to the state budget.
Premier Victor Ponta declared recently that correct transporters who carry out their activities legally will benefit from a return of 4 out of the 7 cents, an amount paid quarterly based on the fuel purchase invoice. The document was approved by the government on Wednesday.
Romania has an ongoing accord of 4 billion euro with IMF and EU but it does not intend to access the funds. The aim of the accord is to protect Romania of possible financial shocks and help curb financing costs.
The IMF Managerial Board approved last week the first and second evaluations of the preventive accord concluded last year with Romania, placing two installments of 436.8 million euro (389.4 million SDR) at the disposal of the state.
The amount available for Romania by means of the loan accord went up to 654.4 million euro (584.1 million SDR).