The spring sowing campaign is being carried out under the sign of uncertainty for Romanian farmers, against the background of contradictory signals regarding subsidies for the year 2026. In this context, the proposal of Minister Florin Barbu regarding the application of excise duty exemption “directly at the pump” has caused controversy, being considered by specialists as a difficult measure to implement in the current legal and technical framework.
More precisely, recently, Minister Florin Barbu transparently launched a GEO project that provides for the purchase of diesel without excise duty and VAT, capped at 78 liters per hectare.
“We must take this decision in the Government of Romania, and farmers have direct access to the pump, with these certificates by which they purchase diesel without VAT and without excise duty, because there is zero impact on the state budget“, said the minister.
It’s just that the EU directives do not allow a percentage less than 5%. Which is in direct contradiction with the minister’s proposal.
Ilie Bolojan says that Barbu’s initiative was not made in direct consultation.
“Each minister has the opportunity to contact me daily, or at least once a week, when we are in session. I talked with the Minister of Agriculture, there was a meeting on the energy group, on the fuel component that we had recently, once every two or three days, to make decisions like this and I canceled the meeting half an hour before, with him. Other times, he didn’t contact me“, said Bolojan, in a press conference held at the Victoria Palace, when asked about a possible communication blockage.
On the other hand, the prime minister asked PNL specialists to analyze the proposal, which proved to be difficult to apply in Romania, requiring many legislative changes to align with EU directives.
This framework requires an amendment to the Romanian Fiscal Code (Law no. 227/2015) through a separate normative act and cannot be established directly through an EGO that does not amend the Fiscal Code. The Payments and Intervention Agency for Agriculture (APIA) is not competent to recover excise taxes and VAT, ANAF being the only body competent for fiscal claims of this nature, notes Cotidianul.ro citing sources from within the PNL.
Ilie Bolojan’s proposals so that price increases do not affect farmers
So, the prime minister came up with a series of general measures, applicable since March, which would regulate the market to support those affected by the increase in diesel prices. However, the reduction cannot be total, or for an unlimited period, both for farmers and for transporters.
“We took a first step, establishing a period in which we will intervene, considering that three months would be a critical period in the next quarter. We intervened to eliminate the possibility of price speculation by limiting additions to last year’s average value. (…)
We have also intervened to limit exports of diesel and crude oil, to reduce the amount of biofuel that goes into petrol, in such a way as to reduce prices and, very importantly, we have extended the support schemes for transporters, increasing the share of excise duty that is settled from 0.65 RON to 0.85 RON, so more than a third. We have also extended the scheme for farmers.“, declared Ilie Bolojan.
Debts of four billion lei, delayed spring campaign, delayed budget
Another reproach brought to the Minister of Agriculture is the fact that, at this moment, the ministry has debts of over 4 billion lei to farmers, the spring campaign was delayed and other categories, such as farmers, suffer.
According to the already adopted Government decision, the state will reimburse farmers almost 2.7 lei for each liter of diesel fuel used for mechanized works in the plant, animal husbandry and land improvement sectors. But payments from APIA will be delayed due to the late adoption of the state budget.
“Do you think it’s simple for me? That all those who have investments in state schemes – pork, poultry, everything that means investments in processing – a billion euros on state aid schemes, with works done on the irrigation system in Romania? Well, at the moment, from October until now, I have four billion lei in debt“, said the Minister of Agriculture.
However, we remind you that the delay in the adoption of the budget was generated by the divergences on the package of social measures proposed by the PSD, a project contested by the coalition partners due to the budgetary impact. It involved financial assistance for low-income pensioners, including specific holiday allowances (Easter/Christmas), exemption from paying health insurance contributions for certain categories, increased child benefits and other social benefits. The proposal came as a budget fine of 3.4 billion lei compared to the calculations of the Ministry of Finance.
Sorin Grindeanu did not miss the opportunity to use the debate for political attacks
President Sorin Grindeanu claims, however, that the PSD ministers, Bogdan Ivan from Energy, as well as Florin Barbu, from the Agriculture area, came up with solutions but were not listened to.
“I also made a public appeal to the prime minister. That’s where the decisions are made, at the government level. Both the Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, and Florin Barbu, in the area of agriculture, came up with measures to compensate for these things. I am waiting and publicly praying for the prime minister to quickly apply these schemes”, declared the PSD leader in March.
In another statement he made direct reference to the situation in agriculture.
“Minister Florin Barbu made all the administrative steps at the government level. There is no economic justification for blocking this project, which has zero impact on the budget deficit. Because of this chronic inability to collaborate, we risk having explosive increases in the prices of agricultural products in a few months!Grindeanu also said.
