Zero funding for buying new tractors

The Romanian Government has allocated no funds this year to encourage the acquisition of tractors and of farming equipment, while for sales of new cars it pays 53 million euros for the Rabla (“Junk Car”) vehicle fleet renewal programme, which will start on March 16th. Although the reduction of the foreign trade deficit on the food segment, from 2 billion euros in 2008, has been one of the key elements of the Government Programme, the Boc Government has not earmarked any funds whatsoever to encourage Romanian farmers to buy tractors. The Tariceanu Government did not allocate any sum for this purpose in 2008, either, although the Parliament had approved a law similar to the “Junk Car” programme, for tractors, whereby any individual who scraps an over 12 year-old tractor, gets 17,000 RON for the acquisition of a new, locally-produced one. The money was supposed to be paid out of the Environment Fund, which also finances the “Junk Car” programme dedicated to automobiles. “Since the law was issued subsequently to the approval of the spending and revenue budget of the Environment Fund Administration (AFM) for 2008, no sum was allocated for this programme from the Environment Fund. As for a applying this law in 2009, the Spending and Revenue Budget of the AFM has yet to be approved,” said representatives of the communication department within the Ministry of Environment.