The tax on special buildings, generally known as the “pole tax”, which was introduced this year, will go down next year from 1.5% to 1%, so oil wells in the Black Sea will be exempted from paying the tax, finance minister Ioana Petrescu has recently said.

But energy minister Razvan Nicolescu said he doesn’t like exceptions and the tax should be applied to everyone.

Finance minister Ioana Petrescu replied saying that the tax will not be applied for off-shore equipment because they are not located on Romania’s territory or in Romania’s territorial waters.

However, companies which are drilling for oil in Romania’s Black Sea section got their permits from the Romanian state and pay other taxes for these operations to the Romanian state.

editor@romania-insider.com