June 7 (SeeNews) - The Romanian Senate on Tuesday gave the final vote to a bill that introduces a 4% tax on streaming platforms' proceeds from local subscriptions, aiming to collect around 38 million lei ($8.2 million/ 7.7 million euro) to finance national film production.
According to the bill, taxes collected from on demand audio visual media service providers will go to the National Film Fund, information posted on the website of Romanian parliament's upper chamber showed.
"According to data provided by the European Audiovisual Observatory, Romania has about 1.16 million users of such platforms, with the top three platforms holding about 99% market share. We estimate an annual contribution of 38 million lei to the National Film fund," according to a motivation document accompanying the bill.
"In the context of declining revenues due to restrictions to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, such as closing of cinemas, shrinking advertising revenues, which lead to a 35% decline in the Fund's revenues, it is imperative to take urgent measures, including legislative ones."
The bill also stipulates that in the case of providers based in another EU member state, only revenues from users in Romania will be taxed. Also, the tax will not apply to providers whose revenues for the last fiscal year did not exceed the lei equivalent of 65,000 euro ($69,448) or whose audience level is below 1% of the number of subscribers at national level.
The lower chamber of parliament gave its backing to the bill in December.
(1 euro=4.9426 lei)