Ungheni city hall (Primăria municipiului Ungheni) announced on 30 July that signing waste-collection contracts has become mandatory and that those who do not have one “will be penalised”. The announcement points to a new law and calls on people to come to the office of the operator AVE-Ungheni SRL, with their identity card.
The law exists and the obligation is real, and the city hall’s call to sign the contracts goes in the direction the law requires. It is just that what follows for someone without a contract is not a fine, but a special tax — it says so in the same article 25, in the very next paragraph.
What the law actually is
The act is called Law no. 178 of 3 July 2025 on the public sanitation service, published in the Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial) on 21 July 2025. It entered into force exactly one year later, on 21 July 2026 — the year in the law’s name is 2025, the year it took effect is 2026.
Article 25 paragraph (1) letter a) does indeed provide that the inhabitants of a locality, whether individuals or legal entities, are obliged:
to conclude contracts for the provision of the public sanitation service with the operator to which the local public administration authority has assigned that activity, under direct management or delegated management Law no. 178/2025, art. 25 para. (1) let. a)
The city hall names AVE-Ungheni SRL as the operator. (Not Servicii Comunale Ungheni — that enterprise also does “salubrizare”, sanitation, but in the sense the law places under article 3: the sweeping, washing and maintenance of public roads, and the clearing of snow. The contract under article 25 concerns the collection and transport of waste.)
What the law provides for those without a contract
The same article 25 continues, in paragraph (2):
By way of exception from the provisions of para. (1) let. a), users who do not have contracts for the provision of the public sanitation service with the operator shall compulsorily pay the special tax approved by the local public administration authorities, which represents the value of the service provided to those users. Law no. 178/2025, art. 25 para. (2)
In other words — the law provides an alternative, not a punishment. Whoever does not sign the contract does not drop out of the system; they pay a special tax, approved by a decision of the local authority, covering exactly the service they receive anyway. Article 27 paragraph (3) goes further, though: local authorities may establish this special tax “at least equal to the tariff”, and they settle the value of the service with the operator monthly, out of the local budget. “At least” means the tax can also be set above the tariff.
The alternative is recognised in the way the service is financed as well — article 27 paragraph (2) lists the three forms of payment: a tariff for those with a contract, a special tax for those without a contract, and a sanitation tax. Separately, article 26 paragraph (1) letter b) provides for the service to be delivered “through the payment of a tax” where concluding the contract is not possible for technical or commercial reasons — a different situation from that of refusing to sign.
What “they will be penalised” means
There is no penalty in the text of Law no. 178/2025 for not having a contract. Across the law’s 30 articles, the word “contravention” does not appear at all, and “sanction” appears only once — in article 9 paragraph (3) letter o), where what is at stake is the local authority sanctioning the operator, not the citizen. The law neither amends nor supplements the Contravention Code (Codul contravențional).
The penalties the law does speak about are of a different kind — article 26 paragraph (5) provides that failing to pay the invoice on time attracts penalties for each day of delay, set out in the contract. That is, they apply to those who do have a contract and do not pay, not to those who have no contract.
Separately from all this, the acts themselves — dumping waste in public places, burning it, storing it illegally — fall under a separate sanctioning regime, outside Law no. 178/2025. That regime applies regardless of any contract, because it punishes the act, not the absence of a signature.
What a resident of Ungheni already pays for waste
Before the new contract, two distinct payments already operate in the municipality, both in force.
The operator’s tariff, approved by Municipal Council Decision no. 9/30 of 20 December 2024, applicable from 1 February 2025:
- 56 lei a month for a household, in detached houses;
- 50 lei a month for families in which at least one member is an old-age pensioner or a person with a first-degree disability — the difference being covered by the city hall out of local taxes;
- 18 lei a month per person in blocks of flats;
- 200 lei per cubic metre, VAT included, for legal entities.
The local sanitation tax, approved by Decision no. 11/1 of 19 December 2025 for the year 2026 and supplemented by Decision no. 7/13 of 21 August 2026:
- 120 lei a year for every person registered at the home address, paid by the owner of the dwelling;
- the basis of calculation is the number of people registered at the address on 1 March of the current year;
- the payment deadline — 25 September 2026;
- 100% exemptions for people with severe and pronounced disabilities and for children under 18; a 50% exemption for pensioners whose pension does not exceed the minimum wage for 2026; a 100% exemption, at the owner’s request, for people registered at an address who have left the country, on the basis of supporting documents;
- since 21 August 2026, a 100% exemption also for people registered at an address in a building owned by public authorities or by institutions financed from budgets of all levels.
The law recognises all three forms of payment — tariff, special tax and sanitation tax — but does not explain how they combine. That is the practical question facing every Ungheni resident signing a contract now — do they pay on top of what they pay already, or does something change about the 120 lei a year and the monthly tariff? That answer lies with the city hall; the tariff and the taxes are approved by the Municipal Council.
What is not yet in the register of local acts
Law no. 178/2025 requires local authorities to adopt a set of acts of their own — the decision entrusting management or the contract delegating management to the operator (article 13 paragraph 7), the local regulation of the service (article 9 paragraph 3 letter i) and, for those without a contract, the decision establishing the special tax (article 25 paragraph 2). The deadline set by article 30 paragraph (3) — 12 months from publication — fell due on 21 July 2026. That same paragraph, however, places the task on the central public authorities as much as on the local ones — the law calls for implementing acts from both levels, not from city halls alone.
One of them already exists, from an earlier act: Municipal Council Decision no. 2/11 of 31 March 2023, which approved the contract delegating the management of the public waste management service, appears in the State Register of Local Acts (Registrul de Stat al Actelor Locale) as an act in force.
The other two do not. In the register, as of 3 September 2026, neither the local service regulation (distinct from the Regulation on exemptions from the sanitation tax, approved by Decision no. 2/10 of 12 March 2025 and in force) nor a decision instituting the special tax appears under Ungheni municipality as the issuer. The register does lag behind in publication, though, so an absence there does not prove the absence of the act. Only the city hall can confirm.
Without the decision establishing the special tax, the alternative provided by article 25 paragraph (2) has, for now, no publicly set amount in Ungheni. That suspends nothing of what is already being paid — the operator’s monthly tariff and the local tax of 120 lei a year remain in force, with the payment deadline of 25 September 2026.
How the contract is signed
For anyone who wants to conclude the contract, the city hall sets out the steps:
- come with your identity card;
- to the AVE-Ungheni SRL office, 7 Națională Street (the Ungheni city hall building);
- further information on 0236 23325.
According to the city hall’s announcement of 30 July, more than 25% of Ungheni residents did not have a contract with the operator at that point — a figure from the institution, unaccompanied by any public document.