The Government considers removing the contribution to the public health services fund for persons who have no income, according to the Government’s spokesman Dan Suciu.

“You don’t ask for contributions from a person who has no income,” Suciu said yesterday, reports local Mediafax.

The Romanian executive thus considers changing the Fiscal Code, where this provision was included last year when the code was changed. According to the new Fiscal Code that entered into force starting January 1, 2016, people with no reported income should pay health contributions amounting to 5.5% of the minimum gross wage, or some RON 57 (EUR 12.6) per month.

A few days earlier, Gabriel Biris, a state secretary in the Finance Ministry, said that the people who haven’t declared any income in the last six months were obliged to pay the contributions for social health insurance.

Biris said that it was unacceptable to have so many "ghost" people, namely persons who didn’t report any income and didn’t pay any taxes. He added that these people would have a surprise in 2016 and would have to pay health contributions. His statement stirred several negative comments, and Biris finally apologized for what he said.

editor@romania-insider.com