At least 30% of the registered motorcars are practically out of use
The start of Motor Third Person Liability Campaign was announced at a mutual press conference given by the Ministry of Finance, the Finance Supervision Commission and Traffic Police – a subdivision
of Ministry of Interior. ‘Amendments to Ordinance No 18 for the Obligatory Insurance are expected to be promulgated tomorrow in State Gazette,’ announced Apostol Apostolov, chairman of the Finance
Supervision Commission. He explained that taking out the obligatory insurance policy is in fact a matter of public security. In case of a traffic accident, the person that has caused the accident
shall cover the expenses themselves provided they do not have a valid insurance policy.
At the moment, the scope of MTRPL varies between 65% and 75%, depending on the method of calculation, i.e. whether the number of motorcars out of use is included or not, clarified Mr. Apostolov. He
stressed that this percent is far from satisfactory bearing in mind the requirement of the European Commission that until the middle of year 2006 shall be attained at least 90% scope of the
obligatory insurance. The chief of Traffic Police – Colonel Aleksi Stratiev – said before INSURANCE.BG that about 40% of the registered motorcars in Bulgaria are older than 30 years which means
that at least 30% of all registered cars are in practice out of use.
The counsellor of the Minister of Finance – Mr. Atanas Katzarchev – appealed to those who do not use their motorcars to return their documents to Traffic Police in order that these cars could be
taken out of the list of registered cars. He also called upon the rest of the car owners to purchase the obligatory insurance before Traffic Police starts to officially ban uninsured cars from
use.
From the beginning of the next year Traffic Police will undertake measures to officially ban from use cars that not have MTPL, underscored Colonel Stratiev.
The joint work group of the Ministry of Finance, FSC, the Association of the Bulgarian Insurers and the Guarantee Fund will carry on reviewing the legislation presently in effect, announced Mr.
Katzarchev. He added that until the end of that year experts are expected to suggest amendments to the ordinances and the laws in order to facilitate the process of widening of the MTPL scope, the
more efficient collecting of motorcar tax as well as the rise in the number of cars having passed the annual technical examination. ‘At the moment the percent of cars that have not been paid tax
for, that have not passed the technical examination and that do not have the obligatory insurance is almost one and the same,’ said Colonel Startiev. In his opinion it is in the most cases a matter
of cars that are out of use. ‘There is also a suggestion that in case a car has not passed the technical examination in the last three years and no tax has been paid for it over the same period,
then it shall be banned from use,’ added Mr. Katzarchev.
