Romania's haulers are requesting the replacement of the current temporary diesel excise duty compensation scheme with a permanent professional diesel fuel mechanism, established by law, as part of a package of 13 measures to increase the competitiveness of road haulage, according to the ASTRA Transport and Logistics Industry Employers' Organisation and the Apulum Association of Road Haulers.

'Romanian haulers do not compete in a local market, but on the same routes with Western European carriers. We load in Rotterdam, unload in Milan and bid in front of the same shippers as German, Dutch, French or Spanish operators. The difference is that they have permanent fiscal mechanisms - professional diesel guaranteed by law, allowances correlated with the real cost of living, functional insurance markets. We compete on the same market, with temporary or non-existent instruments,' reads the document sent to Parliament and the President of Romania.

The main requests are the establishment by law of professional diesel, the elimination of the budget ceiling for the compensation of excise duty, reducing settlement term to a maximum of 15 days, simplifying administrative procedures, cutting operational costs, increasing the non-taxable ceiling of the daily allowance for international transport, from EUR 87.5 to EUR 120 per day, modifying accommodation allowances, as well as measures regarding the RCA market and the monitoring of fuel prices.

'The law promulgated yesterday (on the dynamic excise duty) was necessary and we recognise it as such. But it must be said, even now, what it does not solve for us: it expires on October 31, and the scheme that concerns us directly expires on December 31. There are two different dates, and the second one has no legal coverage today (...). The law reduces the general excise duty on diesel. It does not institute professional diesel. They are different things. A Belgian, French, Italian or Spanish hauler has a permanent mechanism, written into law, which does not depend on any crisis or threshold. We have a government decision with a deadline and a crisis law valid until October,' according to Chair of the ASTRA employers' association Denisa-Daniela Oltean.

The employers say that the current compensation scheme expires on December 31, 2026 and requests the adoption by November 30 of a permanent professional diesel mechanism, in accordance with the provisions of Directive 2003/96/EC. At the same time, the organisation asks the Competition Council to publish the report on the capping markups on fuels and to analyse the reasons why the net price for diesel fuel in Romania is, according to the data mentioned in the press release, the highest in Central and Eastern Europe. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Nicoleta Banciulea; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)