Vláda by sa nemala zameriavať iba na podporu
jedného odvetvia – automobilového priemyslu, ale na plošnú podporu celého
podnikateľského prostredia formou zníženia odvodového zaťaženia, povedal pre
The Slovak Spectator dňa 20.4. 2009 Richard Ďurana z INESS.
THE SECOND wave of the popular car-scrapping bonus is over
with no third wave in sight. It took Slovaks only five working days to burn
through the €22.1 million which the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico
had allocated in the second wave to scrap old cars and subsidise the purchase
of new ones. At 17:06 on April 14 the qualification of old cars for the
scrapping bonus was closed after the 22,100th vehicle had been accepted for
processing at an authorised scrapping yard.
During the two waves of the bonus programme, a measure
adopted to revive the local auto industry and to renew the obsolete domestic
fleet of passenger cars, Slovaks pulled, pushed or drove a total of over 44,000
cars older than 10 years to scrapping yards to receive a government-subsidised
bonus of up to €2,000 to buy a new car with a purchase price up to €25,000.
The second wave brought up a complication in the form of
‘waiting list fees’ which scrapping yards, packed with old cars from the first
wave, charged to those who brought cars during the second wave. Some people
also complained that because the state bonus was not as generous during the
second wave, some car sellers increased the prices of cars.
While the car-scrapping bonus has been hugely popular among
the general public, analysts and economists are less enthusiastic and more
restrained when speaking about its value. Finance Minister Ján Počiatek
considers the impact on the state budget as neutral, the Slovak Automotive
Industry Association (ZAP) hopes that the measure will revitalise the domestic
car industry, and some analysts perceive it as an un-systemic measure taken to
the detriment of other branches of industry while encouraging people to get
indebted.
“We have welcomed this measure,” Mária Nováková of the
Automotive Industry Association (ZAP) told The Slovak Spectator. “Even more
when we take into consideration the fact that Slovakia is one of the biggest
car makers in the world when calculated per 1,000 citizens. Besides this, the
European Union manufactures 40 percent of all passenger cars produced around
the world.”
When speaking about the scrapping bonus in Germany on March
23, Prime Minister Robert Fico called it a solidarity measure. After a meeting
with the prime minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulf, he stated that the
scrapping subsidy brings no principal benefit to the Slovak economy. “However,
the more EU countries which join in this scheme, the bigger effect the measure
will have for the whole European car industry,” said Fico, as quoted by the
SITA newswire.
And on April 1 Fico said that “the car-scrapping bonus is
not a toy game, but a European macroeconomic policy on which we have agreed and
to which clear rules have been set in the European Council and the European
Parliament, and we will go ahead with these European macro-economic policies”,
as quoted by the SITA newswire.
According to the TASR newswire, 12 EU member states have
already implemented some form of the car-scrapping bonus and the neighbouring
Czech Republic is also launching a scheme.
Nováková of ZAP thinks that Slovakia is not a separate
market from either the view of production or the sale of cars.
“So, when countries with an automotive market have
recognised this step as a step helping the economy, Slovakia has also joined,”
said Nováková. “We think that this has helped Slovakia’s economy not only from
the viewpoint that cars are produced here but also from the point of view of
subcontractors supplying not only Slovak, but also Europe-wide, carmakers.”
Apart from the manufacturing sector, the car-scrapping bonus
has brought positive effects also to the sphere of services and maintenance,
which employs 20,000 persons in Slovakia, according to Nováková.
“Now, in spite of the huge interest, we need some time in
order for things to get settled,” she said. “We expect that the car-scrapping
bonus will bring effects every month as during the one month 44,000 new cars
were not ready for purchase by those wanting to buy a car using the scrapping
bonus.”
Richard Ďurana, the
director of the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), an economic
think tank, criticised the car-scrapping bonus as an un-systemic measure which
cannot help the ailing Slovak car industry but, on the contrary, will harm Slovakia’s
economy as a whole.
“It is surely not
only the automotive industry which is hit by the crisis,” said Ďurana. “The
government should help the entire business environment in Slovakia by reduction
of all kinds of taxes including payroll and income taxes and by reduction of
the red tape while doing business.”
He also does not agree with the idea of solidarity.
“Slovakia showed
solidarity towards the European automotive industry more than enough, proven by
more than €200 million in the form of investment stimuli for foreign carmakers
in Slovakia,” said Ďurana in an earlier interview with The Slovak Spectator.
“Thus the argument of solidarity is not in order.”
“Money, which thanks
to this stimulus was used to purchase cars, will not only be missing in other
sectors of economy, but in these sectors the demand for goods and services will
decrease. Thus, there will be less money to be spent on insulation of old
buildings, housing, electronics and other goods,” said Ďurana.
The Slovak government launched the scrapping scheme on March
9 to assist the ailing car industry in Slovakia, which is home to three large
car assembly plants run by Kia, Volkswagen and PSA Peugeot Citroën and a number
of producers of car components. Another goal was to ‘rejuvenate’ Slovakia’s
obsolete passenger car fleet.
While the government first allocated €33.2 million,
expecting that it would take months for auto owners to ‘use it up’, the first
scrapping wave was over already on March 25. During this period of less than
three weeks, Slovaks brought a total of 22,100 cars to scrapping yards, with
Škoda models (63.4 percent) and cars more than 20 years old dominating.
According to Nováková, the age structure of cars delivered for scrapping in the
second wave was similar.
The maximum scrapping bonus was the same in both the waves,
but in the second wave the subsidy from the state was not so generous.
In the second wave Slovaks were eligible for a car-scrapping
bonus of up to €2,000 if they replaced their old car with a new one. The state
contributed up to €1,000, provided the new car seller discounted the normal
price of the car by at least €1,000. The government reduced its contribution by
€500 in this second wave as it had offered a subsidy of up to €1,500 per
vehicle in the first wave.
The main qualifying characteristics of cars eligible for the
bonus were the same for both waves: they had to have been in use for at least
10 years and been registered in Slovakia before December 31, 2008.
The price limit for new cars which can be purchased under
the scheme is €25,000. Those who scrapped their old cars under the scheme can
use the bonus by the end of the year.
No more scrapping bonus for now
The government is not currently pondering a third
car-scrapping bonus wave.
“First, it is necessary to make an in-depth analysis,”
Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek said recently, as cited by SITA. “It is
necessary to make an analysis of what happened during the second wave and
foremost to liquidate the old cars which remain in scrapping yards. Thus, we
will not ponder about extending this measure in the nearest future.”
Nováková agrees that old cars at the scrapping yards first
must be processed.
“The annual scrapping capacity in Slovakia is 120,000 cars,”
she told The Slovak Spectator. “Last year, they liquidated a total of about
38,000 cars and now they received 44,000 within one month.”
Regarding the second wave, Jahnátek criticised some entities
involved in the scrapping scheme. He criticised unjustified introduction of
waiting lists and related fees as well as alleged price increases by some car
sellers.
Scrapping bonus inspires others
The state-subsidised car-scrapping bonus has also inspired
sellers of used cars to use this concept to boost their business.
Autocentrum AAA Auto, one of the biggest sellers of used
cars in Slovakia, offers its clients its own variant of the car-scrapping
bonus.
“Our sales have more than doubled since the start of the
year,” Erika Hettešová, the PR coordinator for the company told The Slovak
Spectator. “We even had to fill in our stocks by import of cars from the Czech
Republic and Hungary. The advantage of our bonus is that our customers can also
buy cars via a leasing contract. Moreover, the customers do not need to wait
for the car for one or two months, but can take their new cars within some
hours.”
Old Škodas also dominated as the type of cars delivered to
Autocentrum AAA Auto to get exchanged for newer models.
“The clients most often picked the Škoda Fabia model as
their newer car and the leasing contracts were between €4,000 and €6,000,” said
Hettešová.
Since this initiative was met with high interest on the part
of customers, Autocentrum AAA Auto will continue it.
“We will extend it in all our car centres across Slovakia by
about one month,” said Hettešová.
Inspired by the popular car-scrapping bonus, sellers of
other goods began to offer their own version of ‘scrapping bonuses’. Buyers in
a shop in Trenčín who bring in an old pair of trade-mark sports shoes will get
a discount of €10 on a new pair. People bringing old household appliances or
mobile phones to electronic appliances retail chains can also enjoy some
scrapping bonuses. But as Jahnátek said on April 15, as cited by TASR, the
Economy Ministry is not pondering the introduction of a state subsidy for other
products, for example, white goods.
The
Slovak Spectator, 20 Apr 2009 Jana
Liptáková
