● MONDAY, August 8

3.8 million lei collected into state budget as road taxes during a week

More than 18,000 vignettes (road tax certificates) were issued during the last week alone. These brought 3.8 million lei into the state budget, the Customs Service of Moldova has said. In the period, there were recorded more than 40 cases of contraventions and imposed fines totaling over 414,000 lei.

Farmers dissatisfied with price of grains to mount protests

The farmers who are dissatisfied with the price of grains announced protests. They demand that the authorities should examine the situation to see if the low grain prices are not due to a cartel agreement. In a news conference, the chairman of the National Union of Agricultural Producers’ Associations “UniAgroProtec” Alexandru Slusari said the farmers already informed the Competition Council. According to him, the purchase price of wheat is 2.2 lei, while in Ukraine it is 3.2-3.4 lei. The farmers suspect a number of companies that buy grains from producers reached an agreement and artificially diminished the price.

Proposals for taxing incomes from leasing out realty

The tax on the incomes earned by private individuals from leasing out farmland will be 7%, according to the draft fiscal and customs policy for 2017 that was proposed for public consultations. The final sum retained from the incomes on the source of payment will be refunded when they are included in the composition of the gross income and when these incomes are declared.

● TUESDAY, August 9

New price ceilings for fuels

The National Agency for Energy Regulation on August 9 published the new fuel price ceilings for the next two weeks. A liter of gasoline coded 95 costs 15.21 lei, while of diesel fuel – 12.88 lei. The new prices take effect on August 10 and will be applied until August 23. Today the gas stations still use the price ceilings set two weeks ago – 15.52 lei per liter of gasoline and 13.54 lei per liter of diesel fuel.

ANRCETI adds section on postal services on its website

The National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) added a new section entitled Postal Communications on its website www.anrceti.md. This includes information for the users of postal services, for entrepreneurs who work in this sector and for those who plan to enter the postal services market. The section furnishes basic information about the provisions of the law concerning the norms and conditions of work in the postal communications sector, the rules of providing postal services and ensuring access to the universal postal service, the relations between postal service suppliers and users of this type of services.

Excise duties on some motor vehicles could be reduced

The excise duties on cars with an engine cylinder capacity of 3 000 cubic cm (gasoline) and 2 500 cubic cm (diesel fuel) could be reduced from €3.72 to €2.5 euro, by applying the average official exchange rate of the Moldovan leu. The move is aimed at offsetting the reduction in the number of imported cars following the rise in excise duties. The number of imported cars with an engine cylinder capacity of 3 000 cubic cm (gasoline) decreased from 1,452 units in 2014 to 300 units in 2015. The amounts collected as excise duties declined by 33.85 million lei. The number of vehicles with an engine cylinder capacity of 2 500 cubic cm (diesel fuel) was of 282 units in 2015, as opposed to 375 units in 2014. The amounts collect as excise duties in this case fell by 9.57 million lei.

● WEDNESDAY, August 10

Wheat harvest exceeds 1.2m tonnes

The average wheat harvest this year is 3,100 tonnes per hectare. The farmers harvested over 1.2 million tonnes of wheat. The average productivity per hectare is by about 15% larger compared with last year, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eduard Grama said in a news conference held to mark the completion of the campaign to harvest grains and legumes. Better results were recorded in the districts of Floresti (4.8 tonnes/ha), Taraclia, Soroca and Leova (by 4.2 tonnes/ha). The situation is worse in such districts as Briceni, where 2.7 tonnes/ha were harvested on average, Edinet and Basarabeasca and in the municipality of Chisinau – about 3 – 2.8 tonnes/ha.

Agriculture minister: Price of wheat decreases all over the world

The price of wheat decreases not only in Moldova, but all over the world and is influenced by the large crop, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eduard Grama said, commenting on the assertions by leaders of associations of agricultural producers that the price of wheat in Moldova is diminished artificially. The minister noted that several weeks ago he had a meeting with operators that purchase grains and with representatives of civil society and agricultural producers and explained that the wheat harvest is also large in the neighboring countries and in the countries that dictate the rules on the market.

Agriculture Ministry official about impact of drought on corn harvest

Mihail Suvac, division head at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, when asked to comment on farmers’ assertions that the drought seriously affected the corn and sugar beet harvest, said it is premature to assess the situation. Mihail Suvac confirmed that owing to the drought, the leaves of corn plants were affected, but the period during which the plant was pollinated and the grains formed is over and, if the farmers sowed the corn on time, the harvest most probably wasn’t affected.

Deadline for refunding paid extra income tax could be modified

The deadline for refunding the paid extra income tax will be April 1 for the applications submitted online and June 1 for the applications presented on paper. Now there is a common April 1 deadline. The Ministry of Finance said such a change is needed because the refunding starting with April 1 for the previous year implies additional costs for taxpayers as they must lose more time for obtaining documents showing what incomes they earned. For their part, the fiscal authorities face the risk of incorrectly determining the sum that must be refunded.

● THURSDAY, August 11

National Bank of Moldova revises down rate of inflation for 2016 and 2017

The consumer price index will diminish by the end of 2016, according to the National Bank of Moldova’s updated inflation forecast presented on August 11. “We are in a period of deflation owing to the weak economic demand, even if the National Bureau of Statistics reported an improvement in the economic situation,” said the National Bank governor Sergiu Cioclea. This year inflation is expected to reach 6.7%, down 0.3 percentage points compared with the level forecast in April. For 2017, the inflation is projected at 4.4%. The annual rate of inflation will return to the variation interval of the central bank’s inflation target (5%, ±1.5 p.p.) in the third quarter of 2016.

Soroca patent holders take to the streets

More than 200 patent holders from Soroca town mounted a protest before the local mayor’s office, demanding that the local authorities should intervene and ask the legislature to abrogate the amendments that ban trade based on patent starting with 2017. Grigore Marciuc, chairman of the Soroca Association of Small Entrepreneurs, has told that there are 720 traders who work based on patent in Soroca. These pay by about 150 lei a month into the local budget and over 500 lei a year in social and other taxes like market and health insurance taxes. The patent holders create new jobs and need to work based on patent further.

● FRIDAY, August 12

Reduction in base rate didn’t lead to rise in volume of released loans

The supply and demand of foreign currency enabled the National Bank of Moldova to continuously intervene in the market since the start of this year for sterilizing the inflows of currency that do not find a buyer and for increasing the central bank’s international reserves that declined, the Bank’s governor Sergiu Cioclea told a news conference. “By the end of July, we bought about US$300 million that enabled us to augment the National Bank’s international reserves to almost US$2 billion. This is less than before their sudden decline. However, taking also into account the reduction in imports, the import covering coefficient increased to five months at present. Following interventions into the market, we also have a positive effect on the rise in monetary aggregates. The positive trend actually started in the first quarter of this year,” stated Cioclea.

Bank share ownership transparency rankings updated

One more Moldovan bank managed to ensure share ownership transparency, according to the updated rankings of the independent think tank “Expert-Grup”. The commercial bank EuroCreditBank climbed from the bottom to the second spot with a high level of transparency. “Expert-Grup” says that as a result of additional consultations with the bank and the provision by the bank and its shareholders of additional information, the bank’s position in the rankings was modified and EuroCreditBank thus obtained four stars. The rankings are topped BCR Chisinau, Eximbank, MobiasBanca and ProCreditBank with five stars.