As of January 1, 2015, excise levels will be expressed in lei using the 2014 level expressed in lei. As of 2016, this level will be indexed for inflation each year, at the annual rate communicated by the National Statistics Institute by October 15, the bill stated.
The change was proposed to avoid variations in excise revenues to the state budget caused by variations in the euro/leu exchange rate established by the European Central Bank (ECB) on October 1 of each year, and to ensure predictability, the ministry said .
Prime Minister Victor Ponta said late November the government would not raise any taxes, excises included, and these would remain at their 2014 levels throughout 2015.
The ECB announced a reference rate of RON4.4093/euro for October 1, 2014. This reference rate, which the government uses to calculate excises, is currently 0.88% lower than last year’s reference rate of RON4.4485/euro.
Should Romania continue to calculate excises based on the ECB reference rate, excises should be lower in 2015.
This year, the government used the 2012 exchange rate, which was higher than the 2013 rate that should have been used, and indexed it with the highest inflation rate, that of September 2013, resulting in an exchange rate of RON4.73/euro in excise calculations.