The Government has formally endorsed a bill that introduces a six-month moratorium on permits to construct new filling stations, IPN reports.

Andrei Spînu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, said the six months period is needed so that the authorities can develop clearer rules as to how and where filling stations can be built.

Andrei Spinu also said that there was an unequal application of fees for issuing licenses for the import and wholesale of gasoline and diesel and for the import and wholesale of liquefied gas. So as not to prevent the access of small operators to the market, it has been decided to abolish the fixed fee of 260,000 lei. Instead, a general license fee of 3,250 lei will be applied.

In order to exclude intermediaries from the process and to reduce the risk of smuggling, it is also proposed to ban the wholesale resale of petroleum products, while penalties will increase about tenfold.

The bill is to be debated in Parliament.