E fundit!

07:48 POLITICS

Plenary session today/ Three interpellations and a series of draft laws on the agenda

Today, starting at 10:00, the Albanian Parliament will hol...

Kosovo adopts the law/ From January 1, there is no customs clearance for vehicles manufactured before 2015

2025-01-08 16:22:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kosovo adopts the law/ From January 1, there is no customs clearance for

From January 1, 2025, cars older than the year of production 2015 cannot be cleared through customs. In 2017, the Government of Kosovo adopted a law, which states that road vehicles imported into Kosovo cannot be older than 10 years. .

The citizens of Kosovo have been hit this time as early as the first days of the new year.

At the beginning of 2025, cars older than 2015 cannot be cleared in Kosovo.

This is due to the fact that no car older than 10 years is allowed to clear customs.

With the Law on Vehicles that was approved in the Assembly of Kosovo, it is clearly stated that cars that are older than 10 years cannot be imported.

"In Kosovo, cars older than 10 years cannot be imported. In Kosovo, cars that do not meet the Euro four standard cannot be imported," states Article 44 of the Law on Vehicles.

Also, the law provides that road vehicles that are imported into Kosovo must have a certificate of conformity for new vehicles and proof of the origin and ownership of the vehicle or special installed parts.

"The purpose of this law is to determine the basic conditions of equipment and installations, which the vehicle must have, the dimension, the largest allowed mass and the axial load of the vehicle, as well as the conditions that the vehicle must meet in traffic, conditions for importation, homologation of vehicle type, component part, independent technical unit, technical control of vehicles, control of technical regularity on the road, vehicle registration, vehicles that have come out of use, as well as other issues related to them", it is stated in the Law on Vehicles.

Otherwise, citizens have always opposed the law that is in force for vehicles, while experts estimate that importing cars older than 10 years has negative effects.

For several years now, the deputy of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Mergim Lushtaku, has initiated the addition-amendment of the Law on the Import of Vehicles, where the removal of the seniority restriction is requested, but such a decision has not yet been made.

According to him, this law in Kosovo was created with a double standard, to the point that he points out that such a thing seems unfair, but he is not finding the consent of the majority of deputies to participate in the vote.

"These criteria are neither in Switzerland, nor in Germany, nor in the Balkan countries that are members, that are part of the European Union, that's why I think it's unfair and as such I asked for the amendment of the laws on vehicles, but unfortunately, I did not find the consent of the majority of deputies to participate in the vote".

Traffic expert, Nol Dedaj, has stated that "Cars older than 10 years in Kosovo are 80 percent depreciated and that in this regard there should be greater supervision by state bodies", adding that the citizen should choose between the new car with the cheapest maintenance cost and the old one with a more expensive price. "Vehicles that are over 10 or 12 years old are considered to be depreciated for 80 percent, from this position if we look at it, then they should have a greater care from state bodies, in terms of technical control. We know that in Kosovo we have periodic technical checks for official vehicles or for those that are in service for the third party, as well as regular checks, especially we have extraordinary checks".

According to him, in parallel with the amendment of the Law on Vehicles, there should also be the amendment of the Law on Customs of Vehicles.

In Kosovo, the law by which a car can be registered and equipped with RKS license plates remains in force, only if it is from the year 2015-2025, specifically 10 years older than the existing year. For a large number of citizens, the registration of 2015 cars is impossible, this is because, as far as license plates, the cheapest one would cost about 3500 euros, not counting the purchase of the car in European countries and the import cost to Kosovo. In article 44 of the Law on Vehicles, which was approved as early as 2017, it is stated that "road vehicles imported into Kosovo cannot be older than 10 years".

Official data shows that there are nearly 500,000 registered vehicles circulating in Kosovo, where the average age of those circulating in Kosovo is 18 years.

Over 144,000 of them are from Germany and belong to the Volkswagen brand./ Monitor.al