The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has decided to take legal action against the Romanian Government for the unconstitutionality of the provisions of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 117/2010 regarding the charging of the social health insurance contribution (CASS) from the entire amount of pensions exceeding 740 lei.
Since the Ordinance stipulates that the contribution rate cannot result in a net pension of less than 740 lei, the territorial pension offices have proceeded to charge the CASS rate of 5.5% of the total amount of the pension, and not of whatever exceeds 740 lei. In this way, a double discrimination has been created: firstly, between pensioners who receive a pension of up to 740 RON, who do not have a single penny deducted from their pension, and pensioners with a pension of more than 740 RON, who are charged 5.5% of the total pension, i.e. of the amount for which the other category does not pay. Secondly, there is discrimination between pensioners whose pensions are in the range 741 - 780 lei, who are charged only a fraction of the 5.5% share (so that the total does not fall below 740 lei) and pensioners whose pensions are in the range 780 - 999 lei, who pay the full CASS share.
It should be noted that these CASS contributions have been paid until now by pensioners whose pensions exceeded 1000 lei, but only for the amount exceeding the 1000 lei ceiling. Basically, this way of calculation creates, on the same pension income, two different ways of calculating and collecting the CASS contribution.
Moreover, it also discriminates against other categories of CASS payers, who do not benefit from any "adjustment" of the rate paid to prevent their income from falling below a certain ceiling.
FACIAS filed at the Bucharest Court of Appeal an application to the Romanian Government to annul the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 117/2010 amending and supplementing Law no. 571/2003 on the Fiscal Code and regulating certain financial-fiscal measures relating to the collection of the social health insurance contribution (CASS) from the entire amount of pensions exceeding 740 lei, given that its provisions are discriminatory.