To the

Prime Minister Ludovic ORBAN,

Romanian Government

Dear Prime Minister,

Association of Maramureș Entrepreneurs, an organization formed exclusively from commercial companies with private capital and registered office in Maramureș county (having at this time, 68 member companies with a cumulative total of about 6,000 employees), together with the National Union of Romanian Employers (UNPR), the oldest employers’ confederation in Romania, in the current context of the crisis generated by COVID-19, we fully support the position of the entrepreneur Mircea Cirt, CEO of ATP Exodus (a member of AIM), who calls in an open letter published in the central press, the following:

„1. Establishing the legal framework for suspending capital rates and interest rates on credit, financial and operational leasing facilities, until 31.12.2020, with the appropriate extension of the repayment term.

2. Elimination of local taxes and duties until 31.12.2020.
3. Urgent settlement (5 days maximum) of state arrears to economic agents.
4. Stopping penalties for non-payment of tax obligations and stopping attachment of economic operators bank accounts until 31.12.2020.
5. Regulating the conditions for technical unemployment as a tool within the reach of the employer, without limiting the mechanism to certain fields of activity. Be fair in addressing and treating all employees alike, without discrimination.

6. Exemption from payment of VAT on customs duties for imports of goods until 31.12.2020.
7. Reforming of all the organizational charts of the state apparatus, as urgently as possible to reduce the costs at the national level.
8. Establishing a net salary for all employees working in public administration, regardless of function, grade, not to exceed 5000 lei net income, except for the employees involved in the fight against COVID19 (health personnel, firefighters-SMURD, directly involved police, etc.), until 31.12.2020 and reassessment in August 2020.
9. Elimination of bonuses of any kind, respectively of special pensions until 31.12.2020.
10. Accelerating the establishment and starting-up strategic investments so that as many companies are involved: Infrastructure, highways, roads, bridges, railways.
11. Cancellation of the approval fee of 500 Eur + VAT for obtaining the opinion of the existence of the force majeure case!”.

To these measures, we add the ones requested by AIM in the address 76 of 13.03.2020 to the Romanian Government; and which are not included above:

12. Exemption from contribution payments (CAS and CASS) for a period of 3 months.
13. Suspension of VAT payment on domestic transactions, for companies affected by the economic crisis.
14. Ensuring the possibility of granting low-interest-rate emergency loans for companies in difficulty and with a grace period of 6-12 months.

Also, we come with other requests due to problems reported on the market, as follows:

15. The suspension of the insolvency entry, until 31.12.2020, of the companies that use as a financial instrument the CEC sheets and the promissory notes, and at the time of settlement with the supplier, they have no coverage and are refused to the payment.
16. Granting government guarantees to banks and non-bank financial institutions (IFNs), for a period of 3 months (including a period of emergency status and a subsequent grace period), for:
    1. settlement of CEC sheets and promissory notes, this being a form of loan for the company issuing them and due to the current crisis, it cannot honor the payment.
    2. granting emergency bank loans to companies in difficulty and significantly easing the conditions and procedures for granting.
17. Amendment of art. XI paragraph 3 of GEO 30/2020, in the sense that the 25% decrease refers to the average of the January-February turnover, not to the value of the receipts because the receipts could be made for services rendered a month before or even a few months in advance if the receipts represent the payment of outstanding invoices.
18. Setting maximum prices for all medical products needed in the fight against COVID19 (masks, suits, etc.) and confiscating any stock that is offered/sold above these maximum prices, given that at present, the import of these products is extremely deficient, and on the domestic market, there are stocks that are offered (see such offers from the electronic public procurement system) at exorbitant speculative prices, placing both hospital units and other categories of purchasers (family doctors, ministry staff administration and internal affairs, etc. unable to protect themselves, even though the products exist!
19. Digitization - in 12 months maximum of what is most urgent and in 24 months maximum which is of a longer perspective – of everything that can be digitized from central and local public administration, from central and local public services, through the passage of maximum services online, and of the difference of services (remaining in the format of services provided physically through effective interaction with the citizens) in the format of the single office of relations with the taxpayers existing at the City Hall of Oradea.

NOTES on the proposal in point 19:

1. There are resources of software and hardware specialists in Romanian companies, at much more advantageous costs than external offers and the emergency situation allows direct purchases over the thresholds including the simplified procedure, in which situation both the state and the Romanian companies win, that capitalize, thus, gain internally!!!
2. This way, the budgetary expenses are visibly reduced, including by reducing the staffing of the central and local administrative apparatus (the objective of both the PNL governance program - now in government and of other political parties, but also found in this request of the business environment in point 7.), which would consistently support both the budgetary expenditures during the period of this COVID19 pandemic crisis and the post-crisis ones.

We request that the Government and the county committees for emergency situations enter as quickly as possible in permanent consultative dialogue with the business environment, which strongly feels how the economic effects are changing (in a bad way) not from day to day, but from hour to hour (receipts, transports, deliveries, stocks, orders, production and production capacities, etc.). There is a need for a union of all forces for entrepreneurial and national economic survival, which ultimately means the social survival of Romanian people.

Board of Directors of AIM