Financial Press Review, January 18

Today’s main subjects in the financial press are the fuel price rise, the forthcoming stock market listing of Fondul Proprietatea and how public money is being spent.

The Ziarul Financiar reminds us about the high fuel price that "last year, the Romanian state collected around 3.5 billion euro from gasoline and diesel fuel sales, about 50 percent of the price consumers pay for a liter of fuel flows into the state accounts.

The most important tax that the state levies on fuel retailers is the excise tax (which varies according to fuel type), between 25 to 30 percent of the final price. Apart from that, there are other prices, such as the VAT (…), the second highest among European states."

"Figures show that it is the state that has the necessary lever to give consumers the lower prices they are demanding."

Bad roads are another price factor, the Ziarul Financiar points out.

The same daily prints an article that analyses how the funds for roads are spent.

Why have "national roads, especially those without heavy traffic, as the 30 biggest contracts top shows", been a priority of the CNADNR (The Romanian National Road and Highway Company) for the past four years?

"One explanation would be that some of these contracts are promises made during campaigns, which had to be kept.

Moreover, the Ministry has tried to pump money into projects with looser rules for co-financing from European funds," the daily reveals in the article entitled "CNADNR is wasting money on useless roads in the heart of the mountains.’

Another article from the Ziarul Financiar entitled "Ministry of Interior defies restructuring" discusses how public money is being spent.

From it we learn that "in spite of the fact that civil servants"salaries have been cut, a head of a department from the Ministry of Interior makes twice as much as the PM."

"Moreover, this ministry has the biggest salaries in the public sector – administration pays double than health care or education."

The Ziarul Financiar also wonders in an article "Why does the Agency for Administration of the National Network for Education and Research need 33 000 Euro SUVs?"
The Volkswagen Tiguan cars are, indeed, bought with European funds.

"The best equipped model with four-wheel drive from Dacia – Duster Laureate – costs 16 500 euros, and the cheapest Dacia Duster jeep is 13 100 euros,"the daily points out.

As the stock market listing of the Fondul Proprietatea draws near, almost all newspapers read that Mark Mobius, executive chairman of the company that manages the FP assets, asked the Romanian government for reassurance that it will not force companies in the FP portfolio to donate money to the state budget, as in the case of Romgaz.

"What happened at Romgaz was actually an expropriation," the Bursa quotes Mobius.

"With just one week until the FP listing at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the FP administrators want to make sure that the Romanian Government, still an important stockholder, with 39 percent of the FP capital, is going to observe the rights of foreign investors," the Ziarul Financiar reads.

Currently "The FP has the biggest promotional tour around Europe, to which over 100 foreign investment funds, with 3 400 billion euro assets, RSVPed."

The Curierul Naţional prints an article entitled "What is the admission fee for FP stocks?’ which reads that Mark Mobius "thinks that Fondul Proprietatea securities are attractive for investors, but emphasized that investors must pay attention to the admission fee."

"What’s new in the third Prima Casă Project?" reads a headline from the same daily.

"The main difference is that it introduces an extra warranty for banks by using the debtor’s current accounts as guarantee, which is meant to serve both parties’ interests in obtaining and giving a credit, for cases where the state might levy on the clients’ accounts."

People who obtain credits "will have the opportunity to request a currency change, rescheduling or restructuring a loan, and the condition which states that seven beneficiaries have to associate in order to build a residential park will be abolished," the Bursa also points out.

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University