Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's prime minister has fired the head of the country's tax agency amid concerns about the European country's spiraling budget deficit.
Premier Viorica Dancila dismissed Ionut Misa on Thursday. The finance minister in Dancila's government repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with tax collections under Misa.
But critics of the government say Misa, who once served as finance minister himself, is being made a scapegoat for economic policies that resulted in a 26 billion lei deficit ($6.34 billion) during the first 11 months of 2018. The amount represents 2.7 percent of Romania's GDP and is more than double the figure for the same period in 2017.
The deficit was even lower in 2016, before the Social Democratic Party came to power.
Gelu Diaconu, a former tax chief, recently accused the government of manipulating figures to stay within the European Union's budget deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
