Cars registered abroad may drive in Romania only for a limited period

Romania’s Deputies Chamber will discuss a draft law that would allow cars registered abroad to drive in Romania only for a limited period of 90 days. The debate on this new regulation will take place in the following weeks, when the Parliament resumes its activity, according to Digi 24 news station. This law draft mainly targets to discourage Romanian individuals from registering second-hand cars in Bulgaria. Romanians have registered more than 100,000 cars in Bulgaria, which they drive in Romania, according to the MPs who have initiated this draft law. This phenomenon became widespread in Romania after the authorities introduced taxes on imported second-hand cars registered in the country, in 2008. The taxes were aimed at discouraging second-hand car imports and helping the local car dealers, as well as local car manufacturers such as Dacia and Ford. However, many Romanians continued to buy second-hand cars from the western countries, especially Germany, and registered them in Bulgaria, where taxes are much lower. The car insurance in Bulgaria is also cheaper. The Senate recently rejected a draft law project which said that cars registered in Bulgaria could only drive in Romania for 90 days arguing that the regulation was discriminating. “Maybe this was our mistake, that we didn’t extend this rule to all cars registered in other countries, which would have been fairer. We will amend the law draft,” said Ioan Munteanu, the deputy who initiated this draft law, quoted by Digi 24. New Romanian car pollution tax comes into force today Romanian state gets EUR 31 mln from environment stamp tax editor@romania-insider.com