Die RGMC hat Steuern zu zahlen, dafür gibt es Zahlen, die der Verein der Minen-GegnerInnen Alburnus Maior in einer zur Verfügung gestellten Presseerklärung vom 23.4. 2004 kommentiert.\r\n\r\nPresseerklärung Alburnus Maior — On 21. April 2004, the Romanian National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA)published its findings concerning their activity of financial-fiscal controlling carried out for the first trimester of 2004. Please find the relevant document on http://www.gov.ro/presa/documente/200404/040421-mfp-ctrl-ian-martie.pdf\r\n\r\nRosia Montana Gold Corporation S.A (RMGC) is listed on page 14 of this document.\r\n\r\nRMGC is a Romanian-Canadian mining junior intending to realize Europe’s largest open-cast mining project in Rosia Montana. From the very beginning, this project has been beleagured by scandals and operational problems; the en-bloc resignations of senior managers as well as vehement local, national and international opposition.\r\n\r\nAccording to NAFA, \\"The company had the obligation to calculate and to retain a 10% tax on revenues (the total being 8.8 billion lei); a legal obligation that was not fullfilled. NAFA therefore established a further tax on their revenues totalling to 1 billion lei. Measures were taken by NAFA in order to request payment regarding these budgetary obligations \\”.\r\n\r\nAlburnus Maior considers that, although the above penalty might represent but a small amount, it is nonetheless a solid indicator highlighting the professionalism and corporate responsibility of a company claiming to adhere to all international, European and Romanian standards.\r\n\r\nIn May 2003 RMGC launched an aggressive publicity campaign whose main argument precisely is about the impecible reputation and image of this mining junior.\r\n\r\nFollowing a conversation between ‘Alburnus Maior’ and NAFA’s spoke person, Dorin Tiganas; the agency’s result is based on a periodic control and not on a requested investigation.\r\n\r\nNAFA is only one of many further fiscal control bodies in Romania and further controls may been carried out by other institutions. Given this NAFA’s result highlights the importance of the indicator and the urgent necessity for further investigations into RMGC’s corporate behaviour.\r\n\r\nSimply put, the significance of this aspect is a very simple one: Why should Romanian tax payers, such as members of ‘Alburnus Maior’, pay for RMGC’s budgetary mis-obligations?