OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2014. During the presentation of the study "Tax mismatch - invisible reality", the expert of the independent analytical center Alexander Fala noted that in any economy there is unobserved sector, and in Moldova, its volume is comparable to the 28% of the country's GDP.

The main reason for the development of the non-observed economy is the existence of the shadow economy (tax evasion), the share of which amounted to about 11-12% of GDP, and the increase in the production for personal consumption by households, which were subsequently classified as a part of the informal sector.

According to the experts, the growth of the non-observed economy has been the increase in tax discrepancies, namely, the difference between actual and potential tax revenue. According to the economists, tax discrepancy, without regard to the illegal sector is 9% of GDP in 2013. Only on the value added tax on the difference between the actually collected and potential charges amounted to 3.3% of GDP. Another problem in this context is so-called "black labor” and wages "in envelopes", when the state loses about 6.5% of GDP. According to Alexander Fala, the main factors of the non-observed economy are, on the one hand is the tax burden, on the other hand, the absence of tax morality - the citizens of the country have no belief that the payment of taxes stimulates the development of society.

According to him, despite the fact that the level of tax morale over the last 8 years has increased, when the penalties are much less than the amount of tax evasion, the citizens of the country do not find rational explanations and continue to hide their incomes. The expert noted that the level of tax morale in Moldova is one of the lowest in Eastern Europe.

This is due to the inefficiency of public institutions, high levels of corruption, and important economic problems that creates distrust in the pension system and budget administration. The expert believes that reducing the tax burden and improving tax and customs administration will have only a partial impact on the provision of the tax compliance. According to him, it is necessary to make fundamental changes to reform the sector of justice, to fight corruption, improve the efficiency of state institutions, economic reforms associated with the management of public finances and reforming the pension system.

In addition, it is recommended to develop the infrastructure for the acceptance of Bank cards, to oblige all the companies to pay wages via bank transfers, increase fines for the tax violations etc.