Romania to re-introduce environmental tax for old vehicles

With a growing interest in buying old cars after Romanian authorities abolished environmental tax earlier this year, the Environment Ministry has announced this week a new pollution tax for cars with low emissions standard and high carbon dioxide emissions to be re-introduced. The ministry set up a working group to find a method by which polluting cars could pay a pollution tax.

The number of registrations for these cars has doubled compared to last year, environment minister Gratiela Gavrilescu said according to Romania Insider. About 350,000 cars with Euro 2 – Euro 4 emissions standard have been registered in Romania this year, compared to 146,000 units in 2016.

Consultancy firm PwC has recently said that Romania is being invaded by old cars, and warned that Romania urgently needs an efficient car tax strategy to boost its car fleet renewal after the used car imports have exploded. Romanian authorities removed the environment tax in a move that saw 102 taxes axed starting February 1 this year.

Romania has one of the oldest car parks in Europe, with an average car age of about 13.5 years and over 1.6 million vehicles whose age exceeds 15 years, according to the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA)