On 6 August the government presented the draft fiscal policy for 2027 and sent it out for public consultation. It is a package with many parts — lower taxes on labor, VAT reshuffled by category, higher excise duties on vices, heavier taxation of capital — but for most people in Ungheni district the practical question comes down to two: how much more of my salary do I keep and what gets more expensive. Let us take them one at a time, with figures.
What the personal exemption is and how much it rises
Every employee has, each year, a portion of their salary the state does not tax — it is called the personal exemption. Today it stands at 29,700 lei a year. The draft raises it to 40,000 lei, meaning 10,300 lei more of income stays tax-free. The government estimates the measure leaves people, in total, around 800 million lei a year nationwide.
The tax rate on salary income stays the same — 12% — and the press release announces no change to it. Here is what that means in money you can feel: for every leu removed from taxation you save 12 bani. Over the 10,300 lei by which the exemption grows, the saving is about 1,236 lei a year — around 103 lei a month — for any employee whose annual income exceeds the new threshold.
It is a measure that leaves more money in the pockets of those who work. Combined with the rise in the minimum wage, which takes effect on 1 January, it will allow us to cut undeclared payments even further. Vasile Tofan, Prime Minister
How much stays in an Ungheni employee’s pocket
This is where the district comes in. The average gross monthly wage in Ungheni district in 2024 was 11,321 lei, according to the National Bureau of Statistics — around 135,000 lei a year, well above the 40,000 threshold. In practice, a full-time employee in the district earns enough to receive the full benefit: the 1,236 lei a year.
At the scale of the district, the figure adds up. As of 31 December 2024, Ungheni district had 16,349 employees. If they all earn above the threshold — which, at the local average wage, is close to reality for full-time workers — the higher exemption would leave in their pockets up to 20 million lei a year, money that no longer goes to tax and most likely stays in local spending and savings.
This is a ceiling, not an exact promise: those who work part-time or seasonally earn less and save less, while people working informally or abroad do not appear in this calculation at all. But the order of magnitude is right — and it shows why a measure that looks abstract in Chișinău has a concrete, measurable effect in a district’s economy.
Who pays: agriculture, vices, capital
A tax package does not only give; it also takes. And some of the things it raises touch Ungheni’s profile directly.
The most locally relevant: VAT. The reduced 8% rate stays for essential goods — bread, vegetables, fruit, most dairy and medicines. But for agriculture, public catering (HoReCa), accommodation and tourism, as well as for other foods, the draft proposes moving to 12%. Ungheni is an agricultural district, and for a local producer a higher VAT rate on their business means higher costs — exactly the tension that, over the summer, brought the district’s farmers out to protest over agricultural VAT.
The rest of the package targets “vices” and capital. Excise duties rise on tobacco (+20%) and on vaping liquids (+50%), and new excise duties appear on sugary drinks, energy drinks and pyrotechnic articles (25% of value). Gambling gets a 6% tax, which would bring around 500 million lei to the budget. Capital gains are taxed at 12% instead of 6%, dividends climb from 6 to 8%, and banks would pay a “solidarity tax” — a profit tax of 18% instead of 12%.
What stays protected — and what changes for energy
The consumer-protection side was, the government says, adjusted after the first version of the draft. The 8% VAT is kept on the basic basket, while for energy the rules take effect only after the cold season, from 1 April 2027: the first 150 cubic meters of gas consumed each month stay at 8% VAT, the first 100 kWh of electricity are at a zero rate, and thermal energy also benefits from a zero rate. Consumption above these thresholds is taxed at the standard 20% rate.
One new item that affects more and more buyers in the district: parcels ordered from foreign platforms will be subject to VAT, plus a flat fee of 12 lei per parcel — a measure meant, the government says, to put local and foreign traders on equal footing.
What comes next
None of this is law yet. The draft fiscal policy for 2027 is to be discussed, in public consultation, with the business community, trade unions, local authorities and citizens, and the figures may be adjusted along the way. For a district where every employee counts in the calculation above, and every farmer feels the VAT rate, the autumn debate is not a formality.
How we calculated: raising the personal exemption by 10,300 lei a year, taxed at the flat 12% rate that the press release does not change, yields a saving of 1,236 lei a year for each employee with income above the threshold. The number of employees (16,349) and the average wage (11,321 lei gross per month) are National Bureau of Statistics data for Ungheni district in 2024. The aggregate of up to 20 million lei assumes all employees earn above the threshold and is therefore an upper bound.