Oil Terminal has been struggling for five years to re-obtain the status of tax warehouse. In June 2010, under the pretext of combating tax evasion, the Revenue Service shut down the fuel warehouses located in the port of Constanta. The fuel warehouses belonging to Oil Terminal – a strategic company – were shut down as a result of that stipulation. An incredible situation resulted: Constanta, one of the biggest ports in the European Union, no longer had any authorized fuel warehouse.
In the midst of the economic crisis, the loss of the facilities offered by the tax warehouse status was a hard blow for Oil Terminal, its number of clients falling dramatically.
Ever since the summer of 2012, when he took over the company, CEO Sorin Viorel Ciutureanu has made overtures at the Economy Ministry and the Finance Ministry in order to address this economic anomaly.
“All great oil terminals in the world have a series of facilities. We have the capacity to offer a great number of services to our clients, but not those that stem from the status of tax warehouse. It’s natural for them to avoid us. We were contacted by several companies that abandoned the Ukrainian market because of the military conflicts in the area. When they found out the level of taxes and excises in Romania and that we can’t offer them any facility, they left,” the CEO stated.
The overtures paid off. “We had lengthy talks at the Finance Ministry and the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF). In order for there to no longer be any kind of objections concerning the technical requirements we have to meet, we bought modern high-precision meters in order to measure the inflow and outflow of products from the storage tanks. The investment stood at EUR 500,000. We managed to convince the Revenue Service representatives of the need for this measure and we helped them understand the specificity of port operations,” Ciutureanu stated.
New business outlooks now open up for Oil Terminal. The company will re-enter the bunkering services market in the Port of Constanta, a market that had been gifted to foreign companies through the adoption of Government Ordinance no.54/2010. That was probably the hidden purpose of that damaging government ordinance.
Oil Terminal will not be the only company that stands to gain from this. Its return to the status of tax warehouse will re-launch oil tanker traffic in the Port of Constanta.
Oil Terminal S.A. Constanta holds a strategic position in the Black Sea region, being the largest maritime operator specialized in the handling of imports, exports as well as transit of oil, oil products, liquid petrochemical products as well as other products and raw materials.
Oil Terminal Constanta is one of the biggest terminals in South-East Europe. (source: nineoclock.ro)
