Law 296/2023 on some fiscal and budgetary measures to ensure Romania’s long-term financial sustainability was published in the Official Gazette no. 977/27.10.2023.
I. Measures to ensure fiscal compliance
1 – Measures to prevent and combat illicit economic activities
It is forbidden to carry out economic activities by persons who are not organized in accordance with the legal provisions in force and to carry out economic activities during the period in which they are suspended. The non-compliance with this provision constitutes a contravention, if it was not committed under such conditions as to be considered, according to the criminal law, a crime, and is sanctioned with a fine from 2,000 lei to 15,000 lei, if it is committed by natural persons, respectively with a fine from 5,000 lei to 35,000 lei, if it is carried out by legal entities.
It is forbidden to carry out economic activities with goods that are not accompanied by documents of provenance, regardless of where they are, during transport, storage or marketing. Documents of provenance mean, as the case may be, the invoice, the goods accompanying notice, customs documents or any other supporting documents provided by law that form the basis of the registration in accounting, in physical or electronic format. The goods intended for, used or resulting from this contravention, as well as the sums of money and goods acquired by committing the contravention are confiscated. The non-compliance with these provisions constitutes a contravention, if it was not committed under such conditions as to be considered, according to the criminal law, a crime, and is sanctioned with a fine from 2,000 lei to 15,000 lei if it is committed by natural persons, respectively with a fine from 5,000 lei to 30,000 lei if it is carried out by legal entities. When applying the sanction, the investigating agent is obliged to notify the offender of the sanctions to be applied, if he commits another contravention within a period of 12 months from the date of application of the last sanction. The goods intended, used or resulting from this contravention are made unavailable, in order to be confiscated.
Cash and cash substitutes are assimilated to goods for which it is necessary to present legal documents of origin.
In all cases in which the existence of circumstances concerning the commission of acts provided for by the criminal law in relation to the presented documents are found, the competent criminal investigation bodies are notified.
The detection of contraventions and the application of contravention sanctions are done by the authorized persons from the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and the Romanian Customs Authority, as well as by the authorized persons from the National Authority for Consumer Protection.
To the extent that it is not ordered otherwise, the provisions of this section are supplemented with those of Government Ordinance no. 2/2001, with subsequent amendments and additions.
Effective date: November 11th, 2023.
