PM Mihai Tudose: We will increase royalties depending on companies’ behaviour

PM Mihai Tudose announced on Sunday that a royalties’ draft law was in the works and that royalties will be subject to change, starting 1 January 2018, while taking into account the behaviour of companies, after the fuel excise will be increased.

Tudose told broadcaster Antena 3 that an increase in excise duty on fuel will certainly be implemented, but that it has not yet been established how much it will increase by or when it will be introduced and that simulations are being made at this point.

According to the Romanian PM, economic operators who thought to make profit from the excise were “deceived” and stressed that, after reintroducing it, they should not increase pump prices, thus remaining in the same “paradigm”.

“But the case is that it was taken out, but the price at the pump did not drop even with a penny, and if someone then thought we had the excise to make some profits, it was wrong. Then we try to put it back and see if companies will understand that they have to stay in the same paradigm they played when it was removed,” said Tudose.

He said that the Government has the tools to increase royalties if economic operators will increase the cost at the pump as a result of the increase or reintroduction of the excise duty.