Emergency Ordinance which suspends the pollution tax for new cars until December 31, 2009 was published in the Official Monitor, Monday Dec. 08, current year, following the positive response received from the European Commission.

Although the Government initially agreed to suspend the pollution tax starting December 1st, it will be enforced on December 15, 2008 - because officials have delayed to give it consent to this extent. The provisions of this Ordinance applies only to vehicles with less than 2,000 cmc engines, which are registered for the first time in Romania or in other EU countries.

The European Commission has noted that there is no harmonization at European Union level in the field of motor vehicle registration taxes. This means that Member States may impose these taxes and decide unilaterally upon their levels and methods of calculation, while respecting the principle of non-discrimination.

The Cabinet contends the decision of tax suspension through budgetary results analysis of the first 10 months of 2008 and the conclusions of the analysis of financial and economic crisis, which reveals an important decrease of auto markets and industry supplier production in October.

The suspension of the car pollution tax is also justified through the Government concern to adopt measures which will ensure the preservation of jobs in the Romanian economy.

In that direction, the Government decided last week to triple the pollution tax for used vehicles, measure that will support the national industry of automotives, affected by the international financial crisis.