From the summer, the rail file and the legalized copies deposited with the institutions disappear

At the end of 2022, the President of Romania promulgated the Law on amending and supplementing GEO no. 41/2016 on establishing simplification measures at the level of the central public administration and for amending and supplementing some normative acts.

Through this normative act, the obligation to present rail files, copies of documents issued by other institutions and photocopies in public institutions is practically eliminated.

The law will enter into force only after the 180 days provided for the implementation of the measures. Therefore, from July 2023, taxpayers’ relationship with state institutions should become much easier.

What is actually changing since summer?

• public institutions in Romania will no longer be allowed to request “ rail file ” or any other stationery for the provision of a public service.
• taxpayers will no longer be required to provide copies of public documents issued by state institutions ( identity card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc. ). The law extends these obligations to local authorities and utility companies, the provision being valid so far only for the central government.
• all public institutions and companies authorized to provide public services are obliged to eliminate the requirement to deposit certified copies of documents when providing public services, replacing them with the certification of conformity with the original by the competent official.
• all public institutions are obliged to make available to taxpayers, free of charge, model forms or requests related to all public services provided, both in physical and electronic format.
• institutions requesting paper copies of documents, other than those also issued by public institutions, will provide, free of charge, photocopying them.
• photocopying documents for a fee in public institutions is prohibited.
• central and local public institutions, respectively companies authorized to provide a public service, are obliged to accept the copy in electronic format after the identity card, sent by e-mail, respectively they have the obligation to publish an e-mail address for receiving the copy of the identity card in electronic format.
• all public institutions and companies authorized to provide public services are obliged to accept documents signed with a qualified or advanced electronic signature.
• all public institutions and companies authorized to provide public services are required to provide alternative methods of paying for public services provided for a fee, either by card payment, or through other payment systems.

Of course, having experience in implementing another simplification measure a few years ago, the prohibition of the stamp request by public institutions and the fact that it took years for this provision to be complied with ( by the representatives of the State ) themselves, and sometimes we still encounter problems in practice today, it is obvious that compliance with this law will depend very much on each of us, respectively the determination with which we will fight to eliminate such habits deeply rooted in our culture.