On the other hand, almost 52,000 second-hand imported cars were registered in the first quarter, an increase of about 50% on the year-ago period.
Imports of second-hand cars rose 53% to almost 19,000 units in March when the stamp duty replaced the pollution tax, while registrations of new cars doubled the decline pace to 30% compared with February, to a little more than 3,300 units.
Re-registrations of second-hand cars sold on the domestic market dropped by almost 40% to 48,400 in the first quarter. This was the most affected segment of the market this year, as both the environmental stamp duty and the pollution tax became mandatory for those cars registered in Romania and previously not subject to pollution tax, such as those registered before January 1, 2007.
“Only Euro 1 and Euro 2 cars are selling now, Euro 3 and Euro 4 vehicles are hardly selling at all. Those who import cars from Western Europe have quickly shifted to low tax cars and those who bought from Romania and did not pay the tax now have to pay it or else they can’t sell and the government gets nothing,” said Nicolae Sorescu, general manager of Radacini, which owns dealers of Opel, Chevrolet, Citroen, Mazda and Honda.
He added the government should do what Croatia did, where transactions with second-hand cars between individuals are subject to a 5% tax of the car’s catalog price, as the environment stamp duty is driving imports of second-hand cars up instead of boosting the new car market.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)