Romania Ups Clunkers Program Budget To Issue 50,000 Extra Scrapping Vouchers

Prime Minister Emil Boc and Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely said Tuesday, at the Mediafax Talks about Auto Industry conference, that 103,000 scrapping vouchers have been distributed to individuals so far under the clunkers program, and 400 others to companies.

According to Boc, 12,300 new cars have been bought through the clunkers program so far, and nearly half of them are made in Romania.

The Boc Cabinet supplemented clunkers program’s funding with 190 million lei (EUR1=RON4.1246) mid-March, which enabled the acquisition of 50,000 scrapping vouchers.

The funding supplement came after the 50,000 scrapping vouchers that were supposed to last for all of 2010 were distributed early in the program.

Romania’s 2010 clunkers program was launched on February 18 and, unlike previous editions, allows one owner to scrap several cars and receive more than one voucher.

The scrapping bonus was kept at RON3,800 and Government initially said it plans to scrap about 50,000-60,000 old cars but has since revised its target to over 100,000 clunkers.