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RADOR: News from Romania, 97-12-29
December 29, 1997
CONTENTS
[01] Will Andrei Plesu become the next foreign minister?
[02] Great loss in the Romanian and European cinematography
[03] 1998 - a better year for the Romanians
[04] RASDAQ market ranks the third in the world
[05] Custom duties reduction on information technology
[06] Dismissal of the PETROMIN directing board
[07] Would bank interest taxes cause a double assessment?
[08] Weather in Romania
[01] Will Plesu Become the Next Foreign Minister?
The foreign policy commissions of the two chambers of the Romanian
parliament will hear Andrei Plesu on Monday in a joint session. Plesu has
been proposed as foreign minister by the Democratic Party, which is part of
the ruling coalition. He is to replace in this office Andrei Plesu, who
resigned last week. Severin submitted his resignation after having been
asked to assume political responsability for the declarations made more
than two months ago, according to which several political leaders and
newspaper directors in Romania would be working for foreign intelligence
service. The investigations subsequently conducted by the specialized
Romanian services demonstrated that Severin's accusations were groundless.
RRI-RADOR, December 29
[02] Great Loss in the Romanian and European Cinematography
The Romanian and European cinematography has lost one of its great names.
The Romanian film director Mircea Veroiu passed away at 56. His latest
creation, Woman in Red, hit the screens in Bucharest this autumn. This year,
Veroiu expressed his skepticism at the future of the Romanian film, for
which funds are even more difficult to be provided because of the material
difficulties and the legislation in this field. Over 1987 and 1993, Mircea
Veroiu lived in France. The about 15 films directed by him as from 1971
have brought Mircea Veroiu a rapid international recognition. He was
awarded prizes in Cannes, San Remo, Bergamo or Panama City for films such
as Adela or the Stone Wedding. In 1991, Mircea Veroiu was on the jury of
the Berlin festival. The actor and not the director is the most important -
Mircea Veroiu said in an interview this year, further adding that he was
never interested in violent, aggresive movies. RRI-RADOR, December 29
[03] 1998 - A Better Year for the Romanians
The Romanian premier Victor Ciorbea and the leaders of the government
coalition have declared their belief that 1998 would be a better year and
that every citizen would feel the results of the reform. The president of
the Democratic Party, Petre Roman has stated that 1998 would be a decisive
year in which Romania would have to demonstrate that it can carry out the
reform and achieve economic recovery, without which prosperity is
impossible. In his turn, the leader of the main opposition party, the Party
of Social Democracy in Romania, Ion Iliescu has expressed hope that most
Romanians, confronted with big difficulties, will find the strength to
overcome them. RRI-RADOR, December 29
[04] RASDAQ Market Ranks the Third in the World
The OTC market in Bucharest, RASDAQ, has listed for transactions 5467
trading companies, thus ranking third in the world in this respect after
the USA and India. 140 securities companies had access to the RASDAQ market,
carrying out transactions worth 2807 billion lei (the equivalent of 350
million dollars). As from 1998, an official index of the RASDAQ market will
be launched. Worth mentioning is the fact that this year several companies
have been privatized by direct auctions on the RASDAQ market. The State
Ownership Fund has recently managed to sell in only four hours its shares
in 8 trading companies. RRI-RADOR, December 29
[05] Custom Duties Reduction on Information Technology
Starting on January 1st custom duties on information technology will be
reduced. This reduction will be applied for computers, telephones, fax
machines and peripheral components but their prices are expected to reduce
only if the addition price does not change and the leu does not drop.
Romania has planned to eliminate custom duties on information technology
until the year 2000 and the Government has set up a scheduling of those
reductions starting on January 1st, 1998. Custom duties for imports of
video displays, computers, printers, faxing machines, telephones, paging
devices, microphones, speakers and videophones will amount to 10% of the
product's value. Pocket calculators and electronic notebooks are to be
charged 18% of their value while duties for peripheral components and
scientific equipments and devices are expected to range from 7 to 14%.
Custom duties for consumer electronic appliances will not be reduced. In
case the information technology products are used by the same company that
imported them there will be no custom duties because computers are seen in
this case as direct investment. Custom duties are to be paid only by
natural persons bringing such products from abroad and by the companies
selling them. RADOR, December 29
[06] Dismissal of the PETROMIN Directing Board
The Directing Board of the PETROMIN comnpany has been dismissed. According
to MEDIAFAX the Sharelohders' Assembly of the company has decided to
suspend the managing contract with the former directing team. The Assembly
has motivated its decision by saying that the three administrative
directors have not carried out their duties stated by the contract. The
three former directors of the Constanta Shipping Company said that the
decision was not fair because the shareholders did not know what were the
duties said not to be fulfilled. According to the State Ownership Fund's
report on September 30th the PETROMIN company had a 65 billion lei gross
profit from selling ships only and not from commissioning them. The former
manager of the company Andrei Caraiani said he would dispute the decision
taken by the administrator Nicolae Bancila to terminate the job contract
with him. Andrei Caraiani said that the reasons of his dismissal were
false. They said he was many times absent without leave, that he used the
car of the company beyond the working time and with no approval from the
administrator. RADOR, December 29
[07] Would Bank Interest Taxes Cause a Double Assessment?
The head of the Communication Office of the Romanian National Bank Adrian
Vasilescu said that once the tax on bank interest would come into force a
risk of double assesment could appear. Mr. Vasilescu said that the bank
interest could be seen as income only if the interest rate is bigger than
the inflation rate. The interest paid by the banks does not always cover
the inflation rate and then bank depostitors loose and this is the case
when interest cannot be seen as income. The Government adopted a week ago a
bill that imposed taxes on some incomes among which the ones from natural
persons' deposit accounts. The tax rate will reach 1% of the interest rate
and it will be kept by the bank itself. Total amount of the deposit
accounts held by natural persons reaches 20 thousand billion lei and
considering a medium 50% interest rate the state would get nearly 100
billion lei from the interest taxes. RADOR, December 29
[08] Weather in Romania
High temperatures for this period of the year are expected, as well as
rains in the South of the country and snow in the North and in the
mountains. The higher temperatures will be registered between 0 and 10
centigrades, the lowest between -4 and 6 centigrades. RADOR, December 29
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