The Confederation of Entrepreneurs and Investors in Romania (CAIR) calls on the Government to adopt urgent measures and initiate a dialog with social partners to reduce the pressure on the business environment, in the context of the accelerated rise in fuel and gas prices, amid the conflict in Iran.
The organization warns that some companies could resort to layoffs and price hikes of up to 25%.
„At a time when oil prices are 401TPTP3T higher than before the outbreak of the war, and when predictions of the 10 lei/liter threshold at the pump have become certain, the business environment is calling for government intervention to protect economic activities and employees. While countries such as Hungary and Croatia have reacted quickly, capping the maximum price of fuel, while Austria has officially announced a temporary reduction in taxes on gasoline and diesel, with a cap on traders' margins, in order to stabilize prices, Romania cannot remain indifferent to the high level of prices affecting several sectors sensitive to fuel price variations”, reads the press release.
In addition, the increase in the price of natural gas should not be neglected, say representatives of the organization.
„At the moment, the reference price has passed 67 euros/MWh, more than double the price at the time before the war started. This aggressive increase in fuel costs cannot be taken up by the private sector, with price hikes of 15-25% depending on the activity and product category, according to several representatives of member firms in CAIR structures. If European countries take rapid measures to compensate for these increases, in order to remain competitive, some Romanian companies will have to resort to layoffs, which will implicitly lead to an increase in the burden on the national budget, but also to the impossibility of meeting contractual commitments”, the document says, according to Agerpres.
Therefore, the president of CAIR, Cristian Erbașu, requests that the problem be analyzed quickly, in dialogue with the representatives of the business environment, with the employers' representative organizations at sector level and the confederations that have in their structure representative federations/ employers' representative, in order to find solutions that are best suited for the business environment, appropriate to each economic sector.
