Isarescu: The measures gov't will probably announce soon have to preserve social cohesion

   The measures that the government will take and will probably announce next week will have to preserve social cohesion, governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu said on Friday."Romania's tax and budget imbalances are categorically the main problem that we currently have to solve. And there is also time pressure. Of course, it is not only a question, let's say financial or fiscal, to get closer to the subject, as it has a component of political stability - the government must at the same time secure political stability. It also has a component of social cohesion. The measures that the government will take, it will probably announce next week, will have to preserve social cohesion to prepare the country for next year's elections. And, of course, it has the component of financial, fiscal, budgetary stability," said Isarescu.He added that BNR hosts debates because they are the most important laboratory for economists.Isarescu on Friday attended the launch of "The Tax Institute", the first think tank dedicated to taxation operating at the National Bank of Romania. The first study of the organisation called "Amendments to the New Tax Code: Inventory and impact (2015 - 2023)" was also released.    Tax law amendments, abuse of tax policy   Mugur Isarescu also maintains that the legislative changes made in the tax field in recent years have been an "abuse of tax policies"."Well, with so many exceptions (...) This was clearly an abuse of fiscal policies. You have in 6 years so many amendments. Well, what stability can you have with such issues? (...). We now have a regressive tax system that puts more pressure on small taxpayers. So, in my opinion, the first measure would be to end, gradually of course, because you can't even rush business people with measures from one day to the next, from a certain perspective, with all these exceptions and then return to a flat-tax before discussing other tax systems. But going back to a flat-tax, a single tax, not a regressive tax system. This is where we are. And we, the economists, know what a regressive tax system means. It doesn't help one with pro-cyclicality, it doesn't help with anything," Mugur Isarescu said on Friday.The BNR governor attended the launch event of "The Tax Institute", the first think tank dedicated to taxation. On this occasion, the first study conducted by The Tax Institute specialists, entitled "Amendments to the New Tax Code: Stocktaking and Impact (2015 - 2023)".