Dodon does not Agree with Tax Increase. What else did He Discuss with IMF Representatives

On October 8, President Igor Dodon discussed with IMF Resident Representative Volodymyr Tulin and IMF’s Mission Chief Ruben Atoyan the prospects for cooperation with the fund. According to Dodon, he disagreed with the IMF's demand for higher tariffs and taxes, including in the HoReCa sector (hotels and restaurants). Dodon spoke about this on his Facebook page. Atoyan congratulated Dodon on completing the fourth and fifth revisions of the programme with the IMF. Atoyan said that the Board of Directors, which met on September 20, “was very interesting.” “We had a discussion on Moldova for an hour. This is the first time for my 15 years of work in the fund that such a lengthy discussion has been going on a particular country. That's because the interest in the country is great, the support is very big, but there are a lot of nuances that the directors wanted to understand, express their opinion,” said Atoyan. Dodon, in turn, confirmed Moldova’s readiness to continue the cooperation with the IMF “under certain conditions aimed at reliable economic development, increasing the level of social protection of the population and truly strengthening the public finance system”. Dodon expressed a restrained position in relation to tax measures promoted under the current programme. In particular, according to Dodon, a change in tax legislation in the HoReCa sector “could harm the prospects for developing tourism - a strategic area for the Republic of Moldova”. “We believe that the measures taken in this direction should be reviewed without prejudice to relations with the IMF,” Dodon said. He also “reaffirmed his firm position on avoiding raising taxes and tariffs, since such actions harm economic growth, and promote the movement of the population from the country and do not bring the expected positive results.” The Ministry of Finance reported on October 4 that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) transferred another of $46.1 million tranche of financial aid to the department’s account. According to the press service of the Ministry of Finance, $ 27.5 million of this amount will go to the state budget. The IMF Executive Board also approved Moldova’s request to extend the programme until March 20, 2020 and change the payment schedule for the successful completion of the programme. The IMF assessment mission visited Chisinauin June. During the visit, Sandu asked the IMF to extend the financing programme until March 2020, so that Moldova could receive macro-financial support from the EU, since one of the conditions for such assistance is the existing programme with the fund. Newsmaker