Vladescu: Romanian, EU experts to jointly seek solutions regarding first license tax

Publish date: 31-01-2007
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Brussels - The European Commission does not exclude the possibility that Romania will be sanctioned for the violation of the EU Treaty regarding the introduction of the first license tax, and a decision will be made depending on the evolution of the present situation, EU officials show.

“The Commission meets three times a year in order to discuss such issues, in March, June and October and it reserves the right to start the sanctions procedures,” said the spokeswomen of the European Commission commissioner for taxes and customs.

The same source underlined that a date until which Romania will adopt measures regarding the modification of the tax was not established but the main problems refer to the value of the tax and the fact that the second hand cars brought from abroad are taxed different from the ones produced in Romania.

Romanian and EU experts will consult over the following weeks in order to find the best formula concerning the first license tax, said the minister of Public Finance, Sebastian Vladescu.

Vladescu spoke in Brussels with the European Commissioner for taxes and customs, Laszlo Kovacs, about the first license tax and reminded that there is an agreement of the EC regarding the protection of the environment and of Romania’s wish for not turning the country into a zone for the dump of industrial residues. The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that the European Commission is planning to introduce a pan-European green tax on motorists.

The proposed levy, which will be put to Europe’s finance ministers in the spring, would replace two types of tax across the 27 member states: road tax and registration tax, which – except in Britain and eight other EU countries – is paid by motorists on buying a new car. One quarter of this new tax would be levied according to the vehicle’s carbon dioxide emissions. Although the framework of new tax would be uniform throughout Europe, member state governments would be allowed to set their own rates.

The plans were unveiled by László Kovács, the EU’s tax commissioner, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Tele-graph last week. He said: “I am concerned by the way that people are obliged to pay a registration tax once in one country, and when they move to another country they can be made to pay a second registration tax. That is double taxation and an internal barrier within the market.”

The tax is unlikely to be introduced until 2009, but Kovács said the idea had strong support among members of the European Parliament. Two thirds of MEPs polled in a recent plenary vote backed the move, the commissioner said. The UK’s road tax, known as Vehicle Excise Duty, is already set according to CO2 emissions.

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