OREANDA-NEWS. February 01, 2010. The Ministry sent to the government a package of legislative amendments aimed at regulation of trade of petroleum products. It is proposed to cancel the legitimate retail sale of petroleum products for coupons and volumetric cards, replacing them by financial instruments such as cash, bank transfers, bank or corporate cards.

At the same time, in order to ensure transparency in the retail market of oil products, as well as consumer protection, it is proposed to provide conformity of prices indicated at information panel with the actual price fixed by the cash registers with fiscal memory. Currently, sales of petroleum products for coupons stimulate evasion of VAT, as the part of the trade transactions is not reflected in the accounting.

Most of employees of the filling stations sell oil for cash at the coupons’ price and put the difference in the “pocket” thus damaging both state and employers. To date, 70% of petroleum products are sold for coupons and volumetric cards. The ministry also noted that European countries do not use coupons preferring to use bank and corporate cards which provide more benefits. The coupons are not registered as securities (it is not possible to punish those who forge them under the law), not personalized and are sold at discount. In addition, petroleum products sellers incur additional costs when printing them.

In case the amendments are approved by the government, sale of fuel for coupons issued before December 31, 2009, will be permitted till June 30, 2010. Today, the share of retail sales at the oil products market in Moldova is 65%. The main market operators are: Petrom-Moldova, LUKOIL-Moldova, Tirex-Petrol, Valiexchimp and Bemol Retail.