Environment Ministry to Suggest
Measures against
Air Pollution


Sofia, February 9 (BTA) - The Ministry of Environment and Water
will propose measures to tackle air pollution. Environment fees
at registering motor vehicles will also be analysed, Environment
and Water Minister Ivelina Vassileva told BTA Monday.

At the same time, at a meeting of the parliamentary Environment
Committee, Vassileva was questioned about the high ecotaxes at
the import and registration of cars in Bulgaria. Experts from
the ministry Waste Department will be commissioned to analyse,
study international experience and come out with a proposal on
the subject. To date, only Local Taxes and Fees Act features
provisions for tax incentives related to the European standards
for environment-friendly motor cars.

In 2012 Bulgaria was the worst polluted Member State of the
European Environment Agency (EEA) with particles with a diameter
of less than 10 micrometres, known as particulate matter (PM)
10, followed by Poland and Slovakia, the latest EEA Annual Air
Quality Report says.

In 2012 nearly 90 per cent of Bulgaria's population was exposed
to excessive levels of PM10, compared to a European average of
38 per cent. The causes of excessive PM10 concentrations are
household, transport and industrial activities, as well as
polluted and poorly maintained road surfaces.

Upgrading urban transport is one of the measures to cope with
the polluted air.

Cars contribute a lot to air pollution, although to various
degrees in the various locations. Ministry experts commented
that diesel is the greatest pollutant of all four types of fuel
sold in Bulgaria because of the particulate matter and
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emitted when it is burnt.

According to the municipal air quality programmes submitted at
the ministry, the transport sector ranks second after household
heating as a source of pollution. That is why municipalities
have includes upgrade of urban transport among the measures they
will take.

In spite of the rising sales of new cars the motor vehicle pool
in Bulgaria is ageing

In spite of the 5.2 per cent rise in sales reported last year by
the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, the vehicle
pool is ageing. Most cars are over 20 years old - 1,475,443 -
with all registered cars in Bulgaria at July 1 last year
standing at 3,769,117, a check in the Interior Ministry's
website shows. Cars aged between 15 and 20 years number
1,104,166, and those between 11 and 15 years are 652,346. In
mid-2014 motor vehicles in Bulgaria aged up to 5 years numbered
133,941, and those between 6 and 10 years were 403,191.

Of the total number of motor vehicles registered in Bulgaria by
July 1, 2014 cars amounted to 2,972,770. Eighty-one of these run
on electric motors and only 5 on biofuel. The largest number of
cars run on gasoline, 1,752,690, followed by those which run on
diesel, 1,001,141, Interior Ministry information shows.

There are 153,998 motors which run on gasoline but also use gas.
Only 146 cars have been manufactured directly to run on gas.
Twenty-five run on diesel and electric batteries, 718 on
gasoline and electricity; gasoline and natural gas are the fuels
used by 8,953 cars, and only 713 run on natural gas./PK/BR



/СН/