16-11-2023

Romania to Start Paying International Productions Shot under Cash Rebate Scheme

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    Cantacuzino Castle Cantacuzino Castle credit: cantacuzinocastle.com

    BUCHAREST: Until the end of 2023 Romania will start paying the debt of more than 35 m EUR due to international productions shot since the cash rebate scheme was launched in the autumn of 2018.

    The first payments will be made for productions that won legal actions in court, but penalties of 543,000 EUR / 2.7 m RON have been added to the amount of 603,000 EUR / 3 m RON, which was supposed to be reimbursed till mid-2023, the Romanian Minister of Culture Raluca Turcan said for the Romanian TV station Digi 24.

    Turcan was appointed Minister of Culture in June 2023.

    In May 2023, the Ministry of Culture announced that a new Office for Films and Cultural Investments would take over the cash rebate scheme from the Ministry of Economy, but the Office has become operational only recently, after its rules and regulations were issued in September and published in the Official Gazette in October 2023.

    The Romanian Government approved on 24 May 2023 an emergency ordinance for the re-start of the local cash rebate scheme, which had been officially launched in October 2018, halted in 2019, re-launched in August 2020, but has been inoperative since then.

    From the 50 m EUR allotted by the Romanian Government in 2018 for two years, only 494,000 EUR  / 2.4 m RON have been returned to one single project: Alex Rider serviced in Romania by Alien Films Entertainment for Eleventh Hour/Sony Pictures.

    The Netflix series Wednesday, which was shot entirely in Romania in 2022 and gave a major boost to the local film tourism, has decided to move its second season to Ireland.