The current mechanism applied by the Ministry of Finance to collect taxes on the import of motor vehicles is outdated and inequitable towards vehicle owners. Since 2013, the sales of long-term vignettes (road toll certificates) rose 6.5 times, while the amounts collected as excises fell by 30%. The conclusions were formulated by experts of the Institute of European Politics and Reforms (IRPE), who analyzed the draft budgetary-fiscal policy for 2016, IPN reports.
In a press release, the Institute says specialists’ estimates show that 55.7 million lei was collected from the sale of vignettes valid for 180 days into the state budget during three years. Currently, about 17 300 vehicles registered abroad travel on the local roads without any restriction. If the owners of these vehicles had paid import duties, up to 470 million lei would have been collected into the budget.
“Owing to the implementation of an aggressive policy towards the engines with big cylindrical capacity and to the permissive policy as regards the vignette, the opposite of the goal set by the authorities was achieved. The amounts collected as excises on vehicles with large engines decreased. A considerable rise was recorded only in the case of vehicles the import of which costs less than €0.55 per cm3,” said IPRE expert Eugen Giletski.
To overcome the created situation, the study authors recommend the Ministry of Finance to modify the currency that denominates the excise duty on the import of vehicles from euro into lei. The Ministry should intervene immediately and annul the price rates for different cylindrical capacities of engines. The fact that consumers’ preferences modified and these choose the lowest price category is the only result of this mechanism.
According to the experts, the Ministry of Finance must reduce the massive discrepancy between the excise duties on the import of motor vehicles and the price of vignette. These recommend introducing a single excise duty and diminishing this to €1 – €1.5 per cm3, and increasing the price of vignette.
