Ecofin Audit Service

Kristina Gurulea.
Legal Department director "Ecofin-Audit-Service" Audit Firm, Master in Law.

Legislative news: "Fin-Consultant" Monitoring.
We continue to inform you about the news, amendments and modifications introduced in the legislation of the Republic of Moldova within May 2010.

Entrepreneurship
1. As a result of the amendments of clause 6 from the article 10 of the Law No. 845-XII as of January 3, 1992 on entrepreneurship and companies, it has been excluded from the competence of the Court of Accounts the imposition of fines for the gaining of illegal through exaggeration of production costs, profitability, trade margin, construction work volume and tariffs for the services rendered, thereby disregarding the normative acts that regulate the formation and fixation of prices. Imposing fines in an amount equal to the mentioned illegal incomes was conveyed to the competence of the Financial Control and Revision Service under the Ministry of Finance and the Centre for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption. (Law No. 63 as of April 23, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 75-77 as of May 18, 2010).

2. In the view of implementing the Convention on temporary admission, adopted in Istanbul, on June 26 1990, the Chamber of Trade and Industry approved the Regulation on the issuance of ATA card for temporary admission of goods. ATA card is the title on the basis of which temporary admission of goods is made. Temporary admission is a customs regime which allows using on the territory of the Republic of Moldova of foreign transport goods and means destined for re-exportation in the same condition, except for normal wear, with partial or total suspension of importing rights and without the application of measures related to economic policy. (Chamber of Trade and Industry No. 23/1 as of May 10, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 72-74 as of May 14, 2010).

3. The economic entities which carry out the activity in the area of food sector, follow to observe in their activity the General rules of hygiene of food products. The mentioned rules are applied on every stage in production, processing and distribution of food products, as well as in the export activity, without influencing any of the specific hygiene demands against food products. (Government Decision No. 412 as of May 25, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 83-84 as of May 28, 2010).

4. The Government approved the Regulation on the Free Economic Zone “Balti”. (Government Decision No. 370 as of May 6, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 70-71 as of May 11, 2010).

5. The prices and tariffs which are regulated by ministries, regional executives and municipality city halls from the Nomenclature of goods and services, approved by the Government Decision No. 547 as of August 4, 1995 “On the measure of public coordination and regulation of prices (tariffs)” - precious metals and alloys, wastes of precious metals. (Government Decision No. 341 as of May 3, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 70-71 as of May 11, 2010).

6. The National Commission of Financial market approved the Regulation on the disclosure of information regarding service rendering by professional participants on the financial market. The given regulation determines the mode of presenting information regarding the financial condition of professional participants and information related to service rendering to the wide public, clients and prospective clients. The mentioned Regulation’s clauses are concerning professional participants in the securities market, professional participants in the insurance market, non-governmental pension funds, savings and loan association, microfinancing organizations, mortgage crediting organizations and credit history bureaus. (Decision of the National Commission of Financial Market No. 8/6 as of February 26, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No.81-82 as of May 25, 2010).

7. It has been published the Procedure regarding sanitary authorization of products with a potential impact upon health, as well as the list of food and non-food products subject to sanitary authorizations. According to the mentioned Procedure, the sanitary authorization of products that cause impact upon health is carried out before their placement on the market, on the basis of sanitary expertise on them, carried out by the institutions of State Supervision of Public Health. Therefore, there have been published the Conditions and procedure of sanitary authorization of objectives. (Government Decision No. 384 as of may 12, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 78-80 as of May 21, 2010).

8. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, by adopting the Order No. 97 as of May 11, 2010, approved the List of standards related to the Technical Regulation “Mushrooms, Mushroom products”, approved by the Government Decision No. 1323 as of November 27, 2008. Also, through the Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry No, 98 as of May 11, 2010, it has been approved the List of standards related to the Technical Regulation “Sugar, Manufacturing and Trading”, approved by the Government Decision No. 774 as of July 3, 2007. (Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 78-80 as of May 21, 2010).

Tax legislation
It has been approved the Sample Form of the report “Calculation of real-estate taxes (Form BIJ-10)” and the Instruction on the mode of completing it, as well as the sample form “Calculation of land taxes (Form FUNJ-10)” . The calculation of real estate taxes follow to be presented by tax-payers - subjects of taxation with real-estate taxes according to the Tax Code stipulations, entities that hold real estate goods, the taxation of which is made emerging from the their estimated value and who are obliged to present the report. The calculation of land tax follows to be presented by tax-payers – subjects of land tax imposing, which hold objects subject to taxation indicated in Appendix 1 of the Law on the application of Title VI of the Tax Code and which are obliged to present the report. (Order of the National Core Tax inspectorate No. 229 as of May 11, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 78-80 as of May 21, 2010).

Accounting and audit
The Ministry of Finances approved the Norms of recognition of international qualification certificates in accounting and audit sector. The citizens of the Republic of Moldova, foreign citizens and stateless persons who passed the exam of international recognition for certification of knowledge in the accounting and audit sector, have the right to recognize and equate the certificates gained after passing these exams, with the qualification exam for gaining the auditor certificate for general audit. The recognition will be made on the basis of demand, with the attachment of the international qualification certificate in accounting and auditing sector, which will be presented through original copy or notary-confirmed certificate, with the attachment of the document confirming its validity by the certificate-issuing body which issued the given certificate. (Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 48 as of March 31, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 68-69 as of May 7, 2010).

Banks and banking activity
The National Bank of Moldova decided to keep:

• the basic rate applied for the main short-term monetary-related transactions on 7% / year level;
• the interest rate for overnight credits on 10% / year level;
• the interest rate for overnight deposits on 4% / year level;
• the interest rate for long-term (over 5 years) credits on 7% / year level;
• the norm of mandatory reserves from the means attracted in Moldovan lei and in non-convertible currency, as well as the norm of mandatory reserves made of the means attracted in hard currency, on the level of 8% of the calculation base.

(Decision of the National Bank of Moldova No. 83 as of April 29, 2010, Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova No. 66-67 as of May 4, 2010).