





First registration tax hits Romanian car market
Last year, Romania's car market grew by 23% as compared to 2006, with sales reaching 367,000 new car units. On the other hand, second-hand car imports in 2007 grew by 4.5% to 123,842 units.
APIA vice-president Brent Valmar declared that the automobile market might increase by 5% this year or, in the worse case, it can freeze or even decrease. He explained that the reevaluation takes into account the first car registration tax.
Dacia vice-president Constantin Stroe warned on Monday that their sales might decrease by 20% as a direct consequence of the new registration tax imposed by the government. He reminded that the same phenomenon took place in Poland where sales of cars produced within the country fell by 9%.
European Affairs Department Chief Adrian Ciocanea declared that the new car registration tax would enter into force by July, 2008. Last week, the European Commission approved the new formula to compute the tax value.