Romania's finance minister Florin Citu announced on November 30 that he would present a draft normative act to introduce the electronic invoice in the first government meeting this week. The measure would bring 2% of GDP extra revenue to the state budget, he estimated.

"In this week's government meeting, we will have the first reading on the ordinance that will substantiate the introduction of the electronic invoice in Romania or even approve it provided we get all the opinions [from relevant bodies] by that time. The electronic invoice will eliminate tax evasion instantly," argued Citu.

He cited Italy's example, where the electronic invoice increased state budget revenues by 2% of GDP.

Minister Citu did not mention how long it will take to implement the measure, nor the time horizon for the 2%-of-GDP extra revenues to the state budget.

Ziarul Financiar, on a note of scepticism, mentioned other measures to digitize tax collection, such as the single SAF-T file [an international standard for electronic exchange of reliable accounting data from organizations to a national tax authority] or the connection of electronic cash registers to ANAF servers - both of which are advancing slowly.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)