February 28 (SeeNews) - Liviu Dragnea, leader of Romania's ruling Social Democrat Party, and senator Serban Nicolae have drafted a bill that would require the central bank to repatriate its gold reserves held abroad.
"The National Bank of Romania can deposit gold from the established reserve abroad exclusively for the purpose of obtaining income through trading and other specific operations. The gold deposited by the National Bank of Romania abroad can not exceed 5% of the total gold reserve," says the draft law published on the website of the Romanian Senate on Wednesday evening.
According to the explanatory statement accompanying the draft, nothing in Romania's current economic situation justifies the keeping of such amount of gold as a reserve abroad, with all related pricey costs, provided that this reserve can be properly maintained and supplemented in domestic deposits.
When asked by local TV station Digi 24 whether the government plans to use the gold reserve to cover budget deficit like Italy is considering to, senator Nicolae denied that this is the idea, saying the draft law only aims to recover the gold and keep it in Romania.
The gold reserves held by Romania's central bank BNR totalled 103.7 tonnes and were worth 3.84 billion euro ($4.37 billion) at current international prices at the end of January, according to the latest data available.
According to local media reports, some 61 tonnes of BNR's gold reserves are being held at the Bank of England. Romania would need the approval of the European Central Bank (ECB) for repatrating the gold, Florin Citu, member of parliament from opposition National Liberal Party said in an interview with local TV station Realitatea.
Earlier this month, ECB warned Romanian finance minister Eugen Teodorovici about the possible negative impact of the introduction of a tax on bank assets, stressing that the ministry should have consulted it before approving the tax.
The government approved an emergency decree introducing the so-called 'greed tax' on banks' assets in December. The tax is to be correlated to the values of the 3-month and 6-month Romanian Interbank Offered Rate (ROBOR).
($=0.8773 euro)