PM Ponta asks Competition Council for help after June 1 when VAT is cut on foodstuffs

Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that he also counts on the Competition Council for support, within its legal limits, for a correct implementation of the cuts in the Value Added-Tax (VAT) for food as from June 1. 'I want you to please help us after June 1, after one, two or three months of the implementation of the competition and market rules after the VAT is cut on all agri-food products. The experience [with the VAT cut for bread] has had positive sides and less positive ones. Now, [the cuts] will be for everything and I want to believe that the rules of competition and a free market will truly work, so as to avoid having to face new trusts for meat, bread and other products which would stop what we have wanted so much, namely open competition, small prices and higher quality. I am asking for your help now, within the limits of your powers,' Ponta told the release of the Competition Council's 2014 activity report.

He added that Romania's only chance for development is having a competitive economy.

'As any other Social Democrat, after having a competitive economy I would like to distribute, but I am very convinced from the very beginning that you cannot redistribute what you do not have in the first place. You do not start with redistribution; you start with competition, because we live in an open Europe and open world, where competitive economy can secure us resources for social equilibria that, as far as I am concerned, any country needs. So, if we start with competitiveness, where the Competition Council plays an essential role, we will then have money for social measures, infrastructure and everything a country needs to be modern,' said Ponta, reported by Agerpress.