After having introduced the taxation of tips two weeks ago, amid public disapproval and plenty of media comments, Romania’s Finance Ministry has decided to give up on the measure.

First resisting and trying to undo the change, restaurants had slowly started to apply the new law, and issued fiscal receipts on the tips customers left for waiters. But their lobbying finally paid off: the Finance Minister announced on Friday the Ministry would cancel the new rule on taxing tips. Not only restaurants, but hotels, food delivery services, as well as taxi companies opposed the change, that had already been introduced in an Emergency Ordinance.

The Finance Minister said the state implemented the idea in the first place because many representatives of the industry had asked for it in 2012, according to Agerpres. Three years later, representatives of the same industries and the Ministry agreed the new law would not cover all the possibilities during which customers would leave a tip, and decided to cancel the new tax altogether.

The state had published the Emergency Ordinance number 8/2015 on April 28, and enforced the new tax in the beginning of May.

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Editor@romania-insider.com