Vasile Ştefănescu, COTAR: "Increasing costs and fiscal measures lead to an increase in insolvencies in transport"

The increase in energy prices, including the increase in fuel prices, the increase in RCA tariffs and the fiscal measures taken by the Government last autumn, but with applicability from January 1, 2024, will increase the number of transport companies that will go into insolvency this year, we said Vasile Ştefănescu, president of the Confederation of Operators and Authorized Transporters from Romania (COTAR).

Vasile Ştefănescu stated: "The number of transport companies that went into insolvency increased primarily due to the increase in energy costs, including fuel, as well as the increase in tariffs for RCA policies, increases that led to a decrease in financial predictability for companies from this sector of activity. On top of all this, there are also legislative changes made in favor of some transport companies from abroad, changes that impose drastic conditions for transport companies in our country, a fact that has a negative impact on their activity, culminating in insolvency. There is talk about the liberalization of passenger transport, but no one follows any rules, especially if we refer to the new companies that have entered the market and provide the so-called alternative transport. Then came the fiscal measures established by the Government last fall, which also have an impact on carriers. All these measures taken overnight, without consulting the social partners, had a negative effect on the transport companies, and some of them that faced financial problems had to go into insolvency".

The president of COTAR believes that transport operators need fiscal and legislative predictability so that the current trend of increasing the number of insolvencies can be drastically reduced.