EC To Drop Infringement When Romanian Parliament OKs New Car Tax

Vosganian said in the Wednesday meeting off the Executive, that Laszlo Kovacs, European tax commissioner, "congratulated" the government on the draft emergency ordinance proposed to the European Commission on the changes to the car pollution tax.

 

Vosganian said the enactment of the new emergency ordinance will be a first step towards the suspension of the infringement procedure initiated by the Commission against Romania. Complete suspension will occur when the Parliament approves whit normative act.

 

Romanian environment minister Korodi Attila state Friday that the Romanian government would set the final value of the first registration tax for cars with respect for three new demands from the European Union, which, however, would not fundamentally change the value proposed by the Romanian experts.

 

According to Korodi, the Commission asked Romania to set a very high level for cars with weak Euro catalysts, to lower the tax with respect for age in the same Euro group and to make the tax challenge procedure wider reaching and clearer.

 

Korodi stated that Romania will not send to Brussels a new document with the modified tax values, and it would directly inject into legislation the set values, depending on the new demands.

 

The Romanian officials met with the representatives of the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union within the European Commission for talks on the car tax.

 

"The EC experts said that Romania’s proposals observe the European legislation in the field. Thus, the last details on the matter will be dealt with next week so that the ordinance amending the legislation in the field can be issued by January 31, 2008," Romanian Department for European Affairs chief Adrian Ciocanea stated.