Moldovan parliament to approve draft legislation to support farmers

Chisinau, 6 July /MOLDPRES/ - Draft laws on the development of agriculture and supporting local farmers, worked out by the a special parliamentary committee, will be introduced into the legislation this week, the parliament's communication and public relations department has reported.

The Special Committee for the elaboration and approval by the parliament of the package of legislative amendments to support farmers, chaired by Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, considered farmers’ proposals to improve the situation in the sector at a today’s meeting. Attending the meeting were also Finance Minister Anatol Arapu and Deputy Agriculture Minister Vlad Loghin.

MPs propose amendments to the legal framework by establishing a supervisory board, with the participation of farmers, who will monitor the allocation of funds for agriculture, including national projects in agriculture. To this effect, they worked out a draft decision on financial transparency in the management of money of national and foreign assistance in agriculture. According to the draft, the government will change its normative acts on the implementation of national programmes in agriculture, with the inclusion of representatives of agricultural producers 'associations, including branch representatives, to monitor compliance with legal provisions on funds management, in the bodies that manage the money. This provision will ensure fighting the corruption phenomenon and monopoly in the management and administration of financial resources provided by national and foreign assistance programmes in agriculture.

The committee also proposed a 0 per cent tax on income, for a term of 3 consecutive fiscal periods, starting from 1 January 2015, provided that the profits are reinvested in agriculture. To avoid tax evasion, the Finance Ministry proposed that the revenues from the sale of domestic manufacturing production from plant growing and animal husbandry of economic agents be at least 75 per cent of total revenues. At the same time, to effectively enforce legislation, the ministry seeks approval of a classifier of related activities which agricultural enterprises may carry out.

By a legislative initiative, lawmakers also proposed amending the Fiscal Code to establish a low 8-per cent value-added tax (VAT) all agricultural products.

The meeting's discussions were also focused on the draft law on the introduction of regulatory rules to combat delays in payment in commercial transactions of food products. Farmers also made a motion for the draft law to provide that the payment for meat, milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables and fresh mushrooms did not exceed 30 calendar days from the time of delivery of agricultural products by suppliers.

Finance Minister Anatol Arapu announced that authorities had not yet identified sources to increase the agriculture subsidization fund. According to the minister, foreign financing was blocked and that the concerned issue might be reviewed after resumption of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Once a new government sworn in, we will return to the state budget rectification, we will also analyse the savings of state institutions, and decide how to reallocate spending," said Andrian Candu.

The speaker also said that, at a meeting on 7 July, the committee members would discuss the draft laws on creating a crediting mechanism profitable for farmers and methodology of forming prices for petroleum products. 

(Editor M. Jantovan)