The pollution tax for the acquisition of new Euro 4 cars with less than 2,000 cmc engines will be suspended until December 31, 2009, according to a Romania's Government decision. The tax suspension will be enforced as of December 1, 2008.

Yesterday, the prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, had a meeting on this issue with Romania's president Traian Basescu. During the meeting, the two officials shared the same concern regarding the fact that import of second-hand cars affected local car sales and they agreed that the tax suspension is necessary to help the auto industry.

The prime minister announced that the tax suspension decree will not be published until it receives a response from the EC. Thus, the Cabinet will send a notification to the European Commission, in which it will explain the decision mainly by supporting the local jobs.

The pollution tax was in this year spring through an Emergency Ordinance and was applied starting with July 1, 2008.

All cars traded currently in Romania correspond to the Euro 4 emissions standards and some brands have models equipped with Euro 5 engines, which are exempt from pollution tax.

The producers that want to sell cars in the European Union will be obliged, from September 2009, to equip all the new cars with Euro 5 engines.