New customs regime makes food products cheaper

The most visible effect of the accession in the economy is the change in the customs regime. More and cheaper food products will come to Romania from the EU and domestic producers will have no choice than to also cut prices to cope with the competition.

Specialists forecast more imports of meat which will decrease its price by up to 20 per cent. Major dairy products such as pasteurised milk or cheese might also become cheaper by 20 to 30 per cent this year.

The bakery industry representatives are also saying that the price of the relevant products should decrease to a significant extent because of the removal of import duties on products from the EU and also as a result of larger quantities to be imported.

According to Mediafax, the highest duty that has been levied on such imports was for pasta – 40 per cent, and an average duty of 15 per cent for the other products. Customs duties on imports from the EU member states were abolished on January 1, 2007. Imports and exports among the EU member states are now called intra-community trade.

New values as from January 1

Our country’s recent EU accession enforces promises made before the end of the year.

Natural gas prices for captive consumers dropped by around 2.5 per cent on January 1, 2007, as a result of the removal of the tax on natural gas produced in Romania, of lower import prices of the appreciation of the RON and of the amended excise system. There will be no tax on domestically produced gas and the import price is lower by around 12 USD/1,000 cubic metres.

As for January 1, the value of the pension point is higher by 16.8 per cent, according to the 2007 social security budget. If there is a good budget revenue collection rate, pensions might be increased again in September 2007 meaning that the public pension might increase on the average by 17.6 per cent with a forecast inflation of 4.5 per cent in 2007. The value of the pension point was increased on December 1, 2006 by 16.8 per cent, benefiting 4,541 million retired people.

Source: nineoclock.ro