Filat condemns car owners' protests as undue pressure

The Prime Minister Vlad Filat held a press briefing on Friday, April 15, responding to the recent car owners’ protests. He declared he would watch so that the law was applied and infringers were punished. “Those who had exploited this legal normal till now, turned to protests today”, he said, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vlad Filat explained that the initial goal of the amendment allowing cars older than 7 years to enter Moldova without paying guarantees in customs, was to help Moldovans working abroad to temporarily return home, but expecting them to leave again. According to the Prime Minister, there are 3864 cars with Bulgarian plates and 2465 with Lithuanian plates in Moldova. “The figures obtained from the authorities of these two states show that 650 cars with Lithuanian plates were deleted from the registry in their country of export. We will still receive additional information from Bulgaria and Lithuania. These data prove the current protesters had other goals than simply entering and leaving the country”, mentioned Filat. He said that many drivers avoided paying taxes and exceeded the age limit for cars’ import. 20 prosecutions have already been started for illegal import of transport units with false authorizations, and 23 other similar files are being examined. “These figures show that the so-called discontent is just an attempt to pass by the legal norms”, Filat said. The Prime Minister stressed that when introducing a foreign car older than 7 years in Moldova, the driver had the responsibility to remove it from the country within a period set by law. “I’m tired of hearing that they don’t want to pay taxes, they want to come in Moldova with a foreign car for 90 days, leave the country officially, and then return for another 90 days. This is wrong, it’s against legal and moral norms. Our decision will be firm. We’ll make sure the law is respected and those responsible are punished. Moldova is a state based on the rule of law, not of those who try to obtain benefits through undue pressure”, he stated. Tens of drivers honked on Friday, outside the Government, protesting against the amendments to the Customs Code, which prohibit foreign-registered cars to be in Moldova for more than 90 days a year. Protesters’ leader, Constantin Paduraru, said that the drivers required an “amnesty”, so that all cars introduced in Moldova until April 5, 2011, could be registered, regardless of their age.