The total tax contributions paid by the oil and gas sector to the consolidated budget were in the first half of last year (H1) 21.5 billion lei, representing 9.7% of the state’s total revenues, according to a study published by the Employers’ Oil and Gas Federation (FPPG).

In 2021, the contributions were of 29.8 billion lei, representing 7.8% of the state’s total revenues.

“In the first half of 2022, the total contributions that the sector paid to the budget represented almost 10% of the budget revenues. If you are wondering how much the state managed to help the vulnerable population in the face of high electricity prices and oil prices ( …) part of those sums came from here. Basically, they are higher receipts that the oil and gas sector gave to the budget,” said Laurian Lungu, economist and co-founder of Consilium Policy Advisors Group, according to Agerpres.

According to the study, as both volumes and prices rose, royalties and surcharges paid by the oil and gas sector reached a record high in the first half of 2022. Together, they amounted to 8.1 billion lei, the equivalent of 3.7% of total budget revenues.

Only the additional tax on additional revenues from gas sales was over 6.2 billion lei in the first half of 2022, equivalent to 2.7% of the Government’s total revenues.

The amounts representing the profit tax paid by the sector increased at an accelerated pace, from 0.6 billion lei in 2020 to 0.9 billion lei in 2021 and 1.3 billion lei in the first half of 2022.

At the end of June 2022, the oil and gas sector had almost 61,000 employees.