Sursa foto: Inquam Photos/ Sabin_Cirstoveanu
The government wants to limit the import and registration of used cars older than 15 years, announced on Friday the Minister of Investments and European Projects Cristian Ghinea, during a debate organized by Expert Forum on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The Minister of Environment talks about a “local tax” in polluted localities.
“The mechanism for used cars does not exist in the current component but will exist because it is one of the added measures. We will have a policy of discouraging the registration of cars older than 15 years, which are very polluting. We are trying to discourage this tendency to import used cars in Romania, as we are not able to ban them because we are part of the common market “, said Cristian Ghinea.
Also through PNRR, the Government wants to tax differently the movement of goods on the national roads.
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“In the first years we will create the digital goods tracking system and then we will charge the transport of goods by quantity and distance traveled, i.e. you practically pay for the roads you use, not like now, when you have a fixed toll per year, and practically everyone pays the same, no matter how much you transport “, the minister specified.
“Local tax” in polluted localities
Environment Minister Tánczos Barna said on Friday that several solutions are currently being considered to address the problems reported by the European Commission following the launch of the pollution infringement procedure in some cities.
“It simply came to our notice then. We will look for a solution. We discussed alternatives in the Government. I said in January that in 2021 Romania will have to make a decision on possible taxes or forms of tax or a possible environmental tax in order to reduce air pollution at least in cities where there are very big problems and where we have open infringement cases. The discussions are at an early stage, but certainly, Romania will have to make a decision by which in these regions, in these cities, in these regional centers at least things will be resolved. Not necessarily a national pollution tax, it may be a local tax in some cities, where the pressure is high and where, along with such solutions, the public authority must come and invest in urban mobility, trolleybuses, and electric buses. , in alternative infrastructures, like bicycle lanes”, Tanczos Barna said
On Thursday, Cristian Ghinea said that the government will implement a system to discourage the registration of old cars and to encourage electric cars so that we can make the transition to green transportation. “We have assumed a clear target of the share of renewable energies in the energy mix until 2030 of 34%”, Ghinea added.
The share of used car registrations of the total new registrations was 83% in the first quarter of this year.
A number of 10 cities must make plans in terms of reducing pollution, respectively: Craiova, Cluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Braila, Turnu Magurele, Galati, Bacau, Ploiesti and Pitesti. At least that’s what the former Environment Minister Costel Alexe said last January. Also, last year, five cities were targeted by the infringement procedure for the constant exceedances of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) values, respectively Bucharest, Timişoara, Cluj, Braşov, and Iaşi.
Translated from Romanian by Service For Life S.R.L.