Excises on wines and grape juice will be annulled in 2012. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Vlad Filat during a meeting with winemakers addressing the 2012-2014 Fiscal Policy Objectives, Info-Prim Neo reports. Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov said that last year saw many improvements in the winemaking sector. The Consulting Office for registration of products with designation of origin and geographical indications was created within the Ministry. All the necessary papers were submitted to AGEPI for the registration of wines and drinks with geographical names Stefan Voda, Valul Traian, Codru and Balti. The Council for Promoting Wine began its activity and is working on the development of a common brand for export- Moldovan Wine. Another important step was renewing subsidies of up to 20% of the expenses for planting a hectare of superior wine grapes. Vasile Bumacov mentioned that a €75 million EIB-funded project for the increasing Moldovan wines’ competitiveness came into effect. The value of the project will rise through another €75 million credit from the EBRD and a grant from the European Commission. The winemakers saluted the Government’s initiative of annulling excises for wine production. According to them, this will improve its competitiveness on the national market, where quality wine consumption is 6 liters per inhabitant, with only 1.4 liters of industrial production, much lower than that of beer and stronger spirits, especially vodka. The goal is to reach a consumption of 20 liters per year, which is still less than in other countries with winemaking traditions like France. Constantin Olaru, general director of Vismos, suggested it would be a good idea to annul excises for spirits produced by distilling wine as well, like in some other neighboring countries. Olaru requested the Government to negotiate with Russian authorities the increase of exports on this traditional market, where Moldovan wines have guaranteed consumers. Some winemakers complained that the 20,000 lei license they pay for every year is a burden too heavy for smaller producers. The unanimously approved idea is that the license cost should depend on companies’ amount of production and sales. Feodosie Bors, head of Chairmen Association in the winemaking sector, said the monopolization of wine certification by a single laboratory caused a lot of difficulties for companies and its taxes artificially increased wine prices. The Prime Minister Vlad Filat reiterated that winemaking was a strategic sector and the Government would continue to work on improving activity conditions in this area. “On Thursday I will got Brussels, where I will speak about how to make the Moldovan winemaking sector more competitive and open more test labs. We ask only one thing from producers: to make quality wines. This will help us avoid embarrassing situations on foreign markets and will increase domestic consumption”, he concluded.