Disputes over the State Tax Bill, submitted to public hearings today
Cutting the backlog of cases in the courts and disciplining those who deliberately procrastinate are the goals of a new law aimed at state fees, the bill's authors argue. According to them, 8.5 million lei were spent last year on summoning parties to court, sums that could have been invested in equipment. According to participants in discussions on the draft, the project will hamper access to justice because of high fees.
The draft Law on State Fees was submitted to public hearings on Monday, and the authors of the draft proposed introducing a so-called stamp duty for letters sent by judges, amounting to 200 lei, which would cover court costs, Parliament's Legal, Appointments and Immunities Committee chairwoman Olesea Stamate said. "One of the objectives we viewed in the process of drafting the bill was to promote alternative dispute settlement methods. So we somehow see that only the court can provide us with a solution, yes, encouraging other means of dispute resolution and at the same time promoting the fact that it is not only the court that can provide a solution in a particular litigation. What we have seen in the stamp duty is that it covers the minimum costs of the court, administration and processing of the claim, and that 200 lei is not an excessive and exaggerated fee", Olesea Stamate commented.
Attorney Doina Ioana Străisteanu claimed that the stamp duty is a big financial burden for some clients. "Stamp duty in my opinion is a huge financial burden. Earlier you said that the stamp duty is introduced to cover those expenses for transmitting parties. It's a good idea, when I go into the judge's office and I see those letters, I imagine how much that costs, but yet we are also introducing e-filing, we are using electronic mail and then why not invest in the electronic platform of filing, of transmitting to the parties. That would have been a better solution", Doina Ioana Străisteanu pointed out.
Court judge Livia Mitrofan believes that stamp duty is overtaxation and could be seen as a payment for justice, a public service that must be provided by the state budget. "Working with the justiciable and the categories, it is an over duplication of the state tax and it is to be included in the initial tax. Finally, we do not know how much this file costs, the shipping costs and the citizens will charge this fee more because in the project it is paid to the account of the courts, as a payment for justice and it will create a perception that people will not have justice if they do not pay the court 200 lei", said Judge Livia Mitrofan.
The draft law on the state fee was voted in first reading at the end of December 2022. According to the authors, the stamp duty will prevent abusive filing of applications in court. At the same time, the state fee for certain court applications shall be increased in order to motivate citizens to settle cases out of court.
