Senate Tacitly Adopts “Greed Tax” Decree

The bill was passed without a debate, vote or special committee report due to the expiration of its adoption deadline in the chamber. The project will be sent to Romania’s Lower Chamber, which will act as a deciding body.

The debate deadline was passed last Friday, while the Senate’s budget committee postponed the debate and report on the bill for this week, following a request from Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici, who argued that multiple amendments were filed to the bill shortly before the committee was due to meet.

Opposition parties PNL and USR boycotted last Wednesday’s Senate meeting after their request to extend the default adoption deadline was rejected by the ruling coalition, also ending the plenary meeting due to a lack of quorum.

The decree instated the infamous “greed tax”, a tax on banking assets which is tied to the country’s ROBOR index, which has since been the subject of disputes between the Government and Romania’s central bank. It also enacted a cap on natural gas and electricity prices and the possibility for private pensions contributors to switch their mandatory contributions over to the state pensions fund.