The Government also anticipates low collections from this tax after it reduced the rate by 25% for this year and suspended its payment upon first sale, in the wake of protests against the administration’s previous decisions, including the introduction of the car pollution tax.
The forecast revenue from the car tax is provided by the Environment Fund’s income and expense budget for this year, approved by the Government in its Tuesday meeting. The Fund’s estimated income of RON624 million would be collected from car pollution tax and other sources. The draft budget put income from the car tax at RON1.8 billion this year.
In January 2012, the Government decided the car pollution tax, charged on the first sale of cars registered before 2007, would be suspended until next year, with a refund offered to car owners who have already paid it. This cost the Environment Fund’s budget RON336 million in lost revenues, on top of RON240 million already lost when the tax was reduced by 25%.
The car tax was introduced in April 2008 and computed according to each car’s technical specifications, engine capacity and carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2009, as car registrations declined drastically, state revenue from the pollution tax stood at around RON630 million, over RON1 billion less than initially projected.
Last year, the tax was hiked by 45-50% on average, although the tax on polluting vehicles almost tripled. The Government estimated it would collect around RON2 billion from the tax, RON437.5 million than 2010 projections and over three times more than it collected in 2009. (EUR1=RON4.3672)