EXCLUSIVE How the state wants to take 250,000 old cars off the streets. It will pay 3,000 lei to owners who ditch their cars without the need to buy a new one

afm, rabla, masini vechi Sursa foto: CCECAR

The Ministry of the Environment is working to introduce a new way of removing the 250,000 old cars from the streets, promised by the Government to the EU through the NRRP program, by introducing a new program to support this. This will allow citizens who own cars older than 15 years to recycle them without having to buy a new car.

Basically, the Environment Fund Administration (AFM), in partnership with local authorities, will pay for the scrapping of these cars through a complementary Rabla program, a sum of money that can be used as the owner of the car wants. Incidentally, apparently, the only condition is that you own a car that is more than 15 years old and that you want to recycle it.

The amount recommended by the AFM is 3,000 lei, but the amount can be higher or lower depending on the possibilities of local administrations. The AFM and the Ministry of the Environment are still working on finalizing the program, which will be presented in the coming days.

“We will cover 1,500 lei of this amount, the rest is the responsibility of the local authorities, but they may decide to offer other things in exchange for the car. Bicycles, electric scooters, it’s up to them,” Lorand Fulop, head of AFM, explains to Economedia.ro.

The state is thus trying to keep its promise to remove 250,000 old cars from Romania’s streets by 2026, and the AFM officials point to a strategy of the city of Sfântu Gheorghe, the first to come up with this form of reward for those who want to give up cars older than 15 years.

Around 1,500 lei ais paid as Ecobonus to those who scrap an old car and buy a new one through the Rabla program, and the AFM thought that those who give up their cars without buying a new one should be paid a slightly higher amount.

In 2022, the Rabla program will start on 4 February, Environment, Water and Forestry Minister Tanczos Barna announced.

In 2021, the Rabla Classic and Rabla Plus program began on April 26 They also brought some news: the scrapping premium for Rabla Classic has been increased to 7,500 lei, the eco-bonus for hybrid cars has also been increased to 3,000 lei (from 2,500 lei), and the CNG/LPG/emissions below 96 g CO2/km eco-bonus has been increased from 1,000 to 1,500 lei.

In addition, the AFM is now considering a program to require local authorities to purchase electric cars. According to Lorand Fulop, the aim is for every local authority to have at least one electric car to encourage citizens to switch to EVs.

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