Finance Ministry grants payment postponement for 56,000 companies

The Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) estimates that approximately 56,000 firms will benefit from payment postponement, and the related fiscal obligations could total about 1.6 billion lei (400 million euros), according to data provided by ministry representatives.

"The payment postponement of fiscal obligations unpaid in due time refers to amounts representing taxes, fees and contributions that taxpayers owe the budget, but were not paid at due date. In fact, by this postponement, another term of payment for the respective tax obligations is granted, a term that cannot be longer than six months and which, in any case, cannot exceed the financial year (no later than December 20 of the fiscal year in which it is granted), representatives from the Ministry of Finance stated.
MFP representatives say that the due sums are to be collected at the maturing date granted for postponement, which means that no money will be lost for the budget of this year. "Therefore, it results that the postponement does not imply any loss of budget revenues," indicate the data supplied by the Ministry of Finance.

The government decided on Tuesday, by emergency ordinance, that companies could benefit from a postponement of payment of their obligations to the state for a period of six months of the obligations to the state, acquired after 30 September 2008, against the backdrop of financial crisis, if, prior to that date, they had paid their debts in due time, provided they pay their current obligations.

The ordinance approved by the Government also provides that the companies are obliged to present a guarantee, in order to benefit from this facility.

"Within 15 days from the date of notification of the decision to postpone payment, taxpayers will constitute guarantees under the form of bank guarantee letter and / or will offer goods free of any lien, in order to establish precautionary measures, estimated at least at book value. The constituted guarantees and / or the offered goods will cover the deferred amounts, as well as the increases for delay in payment for the deferment period," reads the ordinance signed by the Finance Minister, Gheorghe Pogea, and quoted by Mediafax.

The payment postponement shall cease to be valid if the guarantee condition is not met. The facility will also lose its validity if the companies do not pay their fiscal obligations with payment deadlines starting from date of issue of the postponement decision.

To benefit from postponement of budget debts payment, companies must cumulatively meet a series of conditions, namely not to have fiscal obligations outstanding on 30 September 2008, have submitted all tax returns,  have no offences registered in the tax record and not be under insolvency procedure.

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