A small company from Falticeni has overturned the Fiscal Procedure Code. The Constitutional Court found, in response to its petition, that there is no longer necessary to pay a bond for submitting and solving motions challenging the execution of the budgetary receivables started by the fiscal authorities and by the Banking Assets Resolution Agency (AVAB).
The Court has therefore sustained the unconstitutional exception raised against the provisions of the Fiscal Procedure Code that require depositing a 20% bond of the amount challenged as processing fee. "The ruling of the Court is no doubt correct in constitutional terms and benefits the taxpayers against which the State decides for forced execution of debts. Practically, most of the time it is about decisions for taxation issued as a result of controls by fiscal authorities," says Anda Rojanschi, associate with David & Bajas, a PricewaterhouseCoopers correspondent law firm.
She explains that, under a principle acknowledged by both the domestic and the European legislation, any individual or firm that feels an administrative authority, such as the fiscal bodies and AVAB, has infringed upon their rights, must be allowed to go to court unhindered. "Since the requirement to pay an exorbitant bond was undoubtedly hindering the free access to justice, the decision of the Court is fully compliant with these principles," Anda Rojanschi says.
Subsequently, starting March 16, 2004 (March 12 for any challenges to the execution commenced by AVAB) the courts of law will have to register and rule on the budgetary receivables forced execution challenges without requiring proof of bond deposited, as it was the case until now.
The ruling brings a major change in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, which the Government used as an argument to support its position,
