The tax police service, part of the Romanian tax collection body ANAF, announced that it dismantled an organized group specialized in recycling, which created prejudices estimated at EUR 3.5 mln to the general government budget, Hotnews.ro reported.

The implications of dismantling such fake recycling organizations exceed just the matter of tax collection, though.

On the one hand, the move is part of the authorities’ broader attempt to put an end to the lucrative garbage business (often involving imported garbage).

On the other hand, it touches on the delicate issue of packaging recycling - a target repeatedly deferred by the authorities to the benefit of the retailers. In brief, the fraudsters claimed that they recycled some plastic bottles (a lot of) on the behalf of the retailers - and they got paid for this.

Since the tax police calculated some prejudice to the state budget, it means that they avoided paying taxes as well - which allowed the tax collection agency to intervene.

No other authorities, supposed to monitor the recycling operations, have not intervened before.

The fraudsters were, according to the tax police, officially recycling plastic packaging on behalf of the retailers - which outsourced this service instead of recycling themselves the packaging, a business that often involves significant costs.

The “organized criminal group” was not working for retailers directly, but through some intermediaries supposedly set up by the retailers themselves to outsource the recycling services - named OIREPs.

The termination of the fake recycling business, if pursued at a broad scale, is going to eventually be felt by the retail chains themselves.

Even if legally they can not be held responsible for the fake recycling operations carried by some criminal groups such as the one dismantled by the tax police, they are de facto some of the beneficiaries of the frauds (even if, admittedly, in good faith).

As in any market, a scarcer supply of services will push up the prices - particularly if the recycling companies remaining on the market are those that carry legitimate (thus costly) operations. 

(Photo: Aleksei Shaviakou/ Dreamstime)

iulian@romania-insider.com