The government is to allocate €22.1 million to a second round of the so-called car-scrapping bonus, due to be launched on Monday, April 6.
This involves state support for people who scrap an old car and replace it with a new one, Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek announced after a government session on Wednesday, April 1.
However, the rules for the second round are different from the first, the TASR newswire wrote. “The state will contribute €1,000 if the seller [of the new car] provides €1,000,” said Jahnátek. In the first round, which took lasted from March 9 and March 25, the basic contribution from the state was €1,000, but if car dealers contributed another €500, the state subsidy was increased to €1,500. According to Jahnátek, the maximum value of a new car for which the measure applies will remain at €25,000.
By introducing the scrapping bonus, the Government has shown car-sellers that it is possible to ensure the sale of a sufficient number of cars, said Jahnátek. “It’s now up to sellers and the market environment to come to terms with the new conditions,” he stated. “Other challenges will also arise. Restrictions have emerged due to requests for support from other sectors,” said Jahnátek, who denied that there are plans for any kind of ‘white-goods contribution’. Finance Minister Ján Počiatek also said that he doesn’t expect the scrapping bonus to be extended to any other products. The minister noted that the government hasn’t passed any measure stating that the second round of the car-scrapping bonus will be the last one.
As many as 672 cars were scrapped in the first round in the period immediately after the budget allocation had been used up. “The Government has decided that these people will receive payments according to the old regime. The 2,400 applicants who took their cars to scrapyards or took them home but were put on a waiting list on Wednesday or Thursday will also come under the provisions for the first round,” said Jahnátek.
Počiatek also said that the Economy Ministry and the Finance Ministry disagree when it comes to the way in which the scrapping bonus has affected the state budget. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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