Most newspapers today read about the 2010 budget, which is on the table of the Parliament's specialized committees. We read that the Health ministry is trying to tax fast foods and with the 1 billion euro coming from such taxes, the ministry will invest in infrastructure and supplement health funds. Another paper explains the decision of the National Central Bank to decrease the monetary policy interest rate from 8% to 7.5%. Elsewhere in the news, the Presidency budget is about to increase by 23%.
Gandul reads that the government is introducing a tax on fast food in order to increase state revenues. Collected funds will be used to supplement funds to finance health programs and invest in the infrastructure.
Health minister Attila Cseke declared for the newspaper that the 1 billion euro coming from the tax on fast food will be spend on health related programs and the development of the health infrastructure. He added that talks on this issue with fast food producers, distributors might start next week.
Cseke declared that this is an alternative source of revenue for the ministry and the idea came from other European states like Germany, France where the system works. He added that at the level of the Union there are several policies that discourage the consumption of fast food. For now, the tax is just a plan and will be debated.
On the other hand, industry representatives cannot be convinced that the new tax will bring so much money to the budget. The fast food market makes up 2-2.5 billion euro according to the newspaper, on a calculus based on the data of various market surveys. The government will have to tax up to 50% to reach the estimated revenues if the market this year will not register decreases.
Gandul reads that the budget of the Presidency for 2010 is set at 40,688,000 lei compared to 33,074,000
