From the government that brought you a compulsory profit tax on losses, and a tax on fast food comes another wonderful initiative designed to see thousands more Romanian companies close: all Romanian companies (no matter their size) must hire not one, but two full time accountants.

Yes, you read that correctly.

More than 40 MPs, including big names in president Traian Basescu’s PD-L (such as Sulfina Barbu and Basescu’s favourite money-man, Silviu Prigoana) have put forward the idea as a way to solve the problem of Romania’s grey and black economies. The MPs claim that the proliferation of part-time and out-sourced accountancy means that too many unqualified accountants are signing off on documents, robbing the taxpayer of billions.

That might well be so; we haven’t a clue.

But forcing every company in the land to hire at least two accountants? That’s nonsense. For a start, where is Romania going to get one and a half million accountants from?

It is to be hoped that this law will never be passed: there must be enough MPs with enough common sense to make sure it never gets passed.

Or is that hoping for too much?

Number one son got an invitation to a party yesterday. One of the boys in his class is eight tomorrow, and is celebrating with a party at… McDonald’s. Son of Bucharest Life will be there, first and foremost because he likes a good party, especially if it’s one of his best mates, and secondly because he is partial to a cheeseburger every now and then.

Good luck to him.

The invite came a day after Romania’s government announced it planned to introduce a new tax on fast food from March 1st, 2010 onwards.

The tax has been spun as purely a health initiative, designed to make Romania a healthier country by penalising financially those who eat poorly.

In fact, it is of course a rather naked – and increasingly desperate – attempt by an almost bankrupt government to raise money, which will if introduced – the government appeared to take a step back today – probably end up harming the very people it was intended to help.

Why?

Because defining what is or is not ‘fast food’ is impossible. Instead, the law will have to be applied to all foods which contains certain additives. Often, the cheapest foods have the most additives – usually to increase shelf life. What that means is that the cost of many basic foodstuffs will increase, and the amount of cheap food the poorest Romanians have access to will decrease.

Another great idea from the government that brought you a compulsory profit tax for companies that make a loss…