Taxes, tariffs and royalties in the oil and mining field are to be indexed annually with the inflation rate related to the year before their payment, according to a draft Government Ordinance published on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
“Regarding the provisions regarding the taxes, tariffs and royalties in the oil and mining field, the obligation of annual indexation with the inflation rate related to the year before their payment is established. With regard to the amounts representing the oil and mining royalty, a legal basis is created for the adjustment with the annual rate of the inflation due according to the oil and mining concession contracts as well as the exploitation and prospecting premises in force by the agreement of the parties, as well as those newly concluded after the entry into force of this Emergency Ordinance,” it is mentioned in the Memorandum of the project, according to Agerpres.
Also, the draft GEO regarding some measures for public property of the state as well as for the efficient administration of state property also provides that the royalties for the land concessioned according to the law by the State Domains Agency, as the administrator of the public property of the state, on basis of the concession contract, it is indexed with the consumer price index for the year 2022, if it is not provided for in the contracts concluded according to the law. The payment deadline for the updated royalties is until December 31, 2024.
Royalties due for land concessions according to the law are indexed annually with the annual consumer price index, until June 30 of each calendar year for the previous year if it is not provided for in the contracts concluded according to the law. ADS is mandated to take all necessary legal measures.
As for the royalty for geothermal waters, it will return to the initial rate of 5% of the value of mining production.
On the other hand, the project also proposes that, with regard to the concession, by direct award or auction, as the case may be, of agricultural land in the 5th quality class, non-productive land and land in the use category of courtyards, constructions, including canals, from the public and private domain of the state to legal entities under private law or legal entities under private law in which the Romanian State or territorial administrative units are majority/sole shareholders for the purpose of producing energy from renewable sources – E-SRE (hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal and wind necessary including the increase in agricultural productivity), this should be done under the financial conditions approved by the Privatization Concession and Leasing Committee at the proposal of ADS.