site.btaCarriers Protest against Product Charge on Trucks and Buses

108 ECONOMY - TRUCKS - PRODUCT CHARGE

Carriers Protest against
Product Charge
on Trucks and Buses


Sofia, August 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Union of International Carriers (UIC) has filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court against amendments to the Product Charges Ordinance which were adopted by governmental decree on July 16, the UIC press office reported on Tuesday.

The organization is in the middle of consultations about practices in other European countries related to the collection of product charges on trucks and buses. It plans to alert the competent EU institutions against what it believes are unlawful product charges on vehicles in Bulgaria.

The UIC argued that the amendments violate national and EU law by establishing a product charge of 938 leva on trucks with maximum gross weight of over 3.5 tonnes and buses with more than eight passenger seats, including new vehicles, and stipulating that the money is payable at the time of licensing of the vehicle.

Every year, UIC members purchase and obtain licences for over 1,000 new trucks, and now the challenged ordinance requires them to pay almost a thousand leva additionally for each truck, the organization said. SN/VE
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