Romania's new offshore law will keep the windfall tax but increase the threshold over which this tax will apply, announced Niculae Havrilet, a state secretary in the Ministry of Economy and Energy, according to Economica.net.

The new law promised by the ruling Liberal Party to the foreign investors in Romania's Black Sea perimeters should unblock the exploitation operations put on hold due to adverse fiscal and regulatory regimes.

According to the offshore law currently in force, the natural gas producers are charged a tax on the income calculated as the realized revenues above the benchmark revenues calculated based on the regulated gas price as of 2012, namely RON 45.71 (EUR 9) per MWh.

Niculae Havrilet explained that this benchmark level would increase, leading to a lower tax base. The windfall tax rate is not constant but rises progressively from 15% to 70%.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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