Romanian Legislation

1. Law no 83/2016 for supplementing Law no. 8/2006 on setting the indemnity for retired persons, part of the public pension system, members of the creators’ unions which are duly incorporated and ascertained as public utility entities, was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 341 of 4 May 2016.

Retired military personnel and journalists, members of creators’ unions which are duly incorporated and ascertained as public utility entities shall be entitled to receive, upon their express request, a monthly indemnity;

Given the fact that the journalism act involves creativity, at the moment of completing such, in observance of professional quality and ethics, the journalists were also included in the category which benefit from the present indemnity;

According to the applicable provisions, the special indemnity amount equals 50% of the pension due or paid at the moment of the request. A maximum limit of the present special indemnity is also provided, in amount of two minimum gross basic salaries.

2. Law no. 88/2016 on establishing certain mandatory additional measures for fresh milk and dairy products labeling was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 342 of 5 May 2016.

According to the mentioned normative deed, all dairy products on the consumer market shall be labeled in respect of the powder milk percentage existing in its content;

“Natural product” mention shall be labeled on a product only in case the dairy producers use a percentage of 100 % of cow, buffalo cow, sheep or goat raw milk as raw material, (without other milk replacements or powder milk) and the raw milk is of domestic origin;

The fines provided by the present normative deed in case of breaching its provisions range between RON 15,000 and 20,000.

3. Government Decision no. 345/2016 for amending and supplementing Government Decision no. 617/2014 on establishing the institutional framework and certain measures for implementing Regulation (EU) no. 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 367 of 12 May 2016.

The main purpose of the present legislative amendment resides in emphasizing the sanctioning regime and implementing new offences to the companies which do not observe the applicable legislation on making available on the market and use of biocidal products;

Biocide products traded by failing to observance the content of the endorsement/authorization declaration of the company having the present object of activity shall be subject to fines ranging between RON 35,000 and RON 50,000.

4. Law no. 102/2016 on business incubators was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 393 of 23 May 2016.

According to the above mentioned normative deed, a series of fiscal facilities are provided to the companies which set up business incubators, thus the founding entities shall be exempted, subject to meeting certain conditions, from the payment, inter alia, of the following:

i) property tax for the land plot related to the business incubator;
ii) property tax for the building associated with the business incubator;
iii) any other taxes owned for the issuance of any town planning certificates, construction and/or demolition authorizations for lands and buildings associated with the business incubator.

The present normative deed brings under detailed regulation the manner for setting up, operating and closing down business incubators, the persons involved in the functioning of such entities, the manner for selecting them and the types possible to be built.

5. Law no. 98/2016 on public procurement, published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 390 of 23 May 2016.

As a novelty element, the provisions in discussion bring under regulation the fact that the direct public procurement limits shall be established in RON and not in EURO, as previously provided, such as follows:

i) direct public procurement of products and services is permitted to the contacting public authorities only if the estimate acquisition value is below RON 132,519, VAT excluded;
ii) direct public procurement of works is permitted if the estimate value is below RON 441,730 RON, VAT excluded.

The normative deed brings under regulation, inter alia, the selection criteria in respect of economic agents which are awarded public procurement contracts, the calculation formula of the procurement estimate value, the procurement contracts exempted from the applicability of the present law, the standard rules for participating to and carrying out the awarding procedures.

6. Government Emergency Ordinance no. 18/2016 amending and supplementing Law no. 286/2009 on Criminal Code, Law no. 135/2010 on Criminal Procedure Code, as well as for supplementing art. 31 (1) of Law no. 304/2004 on judicial system organization was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 389 of 23 May 2016.

Having as main basis the affluence of admitted pleas on the lack of constitutionality related to the provisions of the New Criminal and Criminal Procedures Codes enforced starting with 2014, as well as the implementation of certain European Union directives, the present government emergency ordinance amended, respectively introduced certain regulations pertaining to substantive criminal law, as well as to the criminal procedure provisions, in such fields as:

i) lapse of statute of limitation in case of crimes against freedom and sexual integrity, traffic and exploitation of vulnerable persons, as well as child pornography, perpetrated against an underage person;

ii) determining the sentence in case of traffic with underage persons;

iii) punishing the attempt and determining the punishment in case of certain crimes against assets, which produced extremely serious consequences;

iv) persons entitled to claim the joining of the legal actions;

v) changing de venue of the legal actions;

vi) the manner in which criminal prosecution actions may be carried out outside the jurisdiction where the criminal investigation is actually performed;

vii) protection of the prejudiced party and of the civil party;

viii) procuring data on the financial transactions of a person may be obtained in emergency cases and by the prosecutor without the prior consent of the justice of the peace;

ix) the possibility that computer forensics is also carried out by special police personnel, under certain conditions;

x) amending the content of certain precautionary measures;

xi) the pre-hearing procedure;

xii) dropping the criminal investigation;

xiii) the term for filing the appeal for annulment;

xiv) the guilty plea agreement.

7. Order no. 1503/2016 of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration on approving the Registration Procedure, upon request, in the Registry of taxable persons which apply the VAT upon collection system and the Deregistration Procedure, upon request or ex officio, from the Registry of taxable persons which apply the VAT upon collection system, as well as the model and content of forms was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 403 of 27 May 2016.

The above mentioned normative deed brings under regulation the method for registration, only by express request, of the companies which apply VAT upon collection in the Registry of taxable persons which apply the indicated taxation system;

This procedure applies to taxable companies headquartered in Romania, registered for VAT purposes and whose turnover during the previous calendar year did not exceed the threshold of RON 2,250,000;

The registration procedure also applies to taxable persons registered for VAT purposes during the current calendar year.

8. Order no. 1559/2016 of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration on approving the Procedure for settlement of requests for repayment of VAT submitted according to title VII “Value Added Tax” of Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code and of title VII of the Methodological Norms for applying Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, approved by Government Decision no. 1/2016 was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 394, of 24 May 2016.

According to the above mentioned normative deeds, a new procedure for settlement of VAT repayment requests was set up, having as scope the taxpayers which invoiced with VAT certain goods to non-profit entities which transport goods outside the European Union, as part of humanitarian, charitable or educative activities;

The above mentioned taxable person may request the repayment of VAT collected and paid as a consequence for the delivery of goods. In order to materialize the VAT repayment in discussion, the taxpayer must submit with the competent tax authority a repayment request, as well as documents supporting such right;

Is important to mention that the VAT repayment procedure is different form the VAT reimbursement procedure.

9. Decision no. 7 of 4 April 2016 of the High Court of Cassation and Justice was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 399 of 26 May 2016.

The Decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice puts an end to the legal controversy in respect of the dismissal procedure for reasons pertaining to the employee herself/himself, hence, the document based on which the employer may exercise the dismissal option is the medical fitness for work certificate, irrespective whether such is challenged or not by the employee which was declared physically and/or mentally unfit.

10. Law no. 112/2016 on approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 112/2016 for amending and supplementing certain normative deeds, as well as for bringing under regulation certain budgetary measures was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 408 of 30 May 2016.

According to the above mentioned normative deed, , the natural persons who do not have income subject to the health social system contributions or who gain monthly income exclusively from investments and/or from other sources whose monthly computation basis are below the minimum gross salary value per country and do not fall within the categories of individuals exempted from the payment of the contribution or within the categories of individuals for which the contribution is covered from other sources, own the contribution, upon discretion, either monthly or at the moment when they access the services provided by the public health insurance system;

The contribution level shall be established by the competent tax authority, depending upon the insurance modality chosen by the taxpayer, further to submitting a declaration.