Key to stamping out tax evasion: new IT system at ANAF

The key to stamping out tax evasion in Romania is a new software and hardware IT system at the National Tax Administration Authority (ANAF) and a collaboration between institutions, Dragos Doros, Vice President of the Tax Consultants Chamber (CCF) and former president of Tax Administration stated on Tuesday.

"The aggressiveness the tax administration has been manifesting lately is on the rise and it is only natural. In statistics, Romania is doing both very well and very badly. It is the country to have grown the most in the EU, by 7 percent, and the country with revenues with the smallest percentage out of the Gross Domestic Product in the EU. That means collection is poorly done. From a consolidated budget of around 280 billion lei, approximately 220 billion are collected through ANAF. Everybody says we must stamp out tax evasion and it is correct. Steps have been made, good steps. Anti-fraud has been set up, and there has been a revival in the collection from small retailers who had not bothered with receipts before. It was a good bogeyman but as any bogeyman, the emotional impact wears off in time," Doros told a conference organised by Durable Romania.

He considers that the emotional impact must be replaced with structural measures.

The tax administration's IT system is obsolete and it has a material impact on tax collection efficiency, Jaewoo Lee, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told a press conference last Friday. We understand there is a programme which was signed with the World Bank and which is currently pending. The final decision for the future course of the programme will be between the Gov't and the World Bank. A final decision has not been yet reached. We believe it would be desirable some actions be adopted either through the World Bank or through other means so as to strengthen the IT system, Lee said.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florin Barbuta, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)