The Executive has approved the granting of a state aid for agriculture, involving the reduction of excise duty on diesel used in agriculture, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mihail Dumitru has stated at the press briefing held at Victoria Palace.

"The aid consists in cutting the excise duty on diesel used in agriculture from the current level of about 293 EUR per thousand liters of diesel to 21 EUR per thousand liters of diesel. In concrete terms, this means a saving of about 1.16 lei per liter of diesel, " Minister of Agriculture has explained.

This state aid is granted for the next three years, from 2010 to 2012, with a maximum quantity of 700 million liters of diesel used in vegetal, animal rearing and irrigation works.

The Agriculture Minister has stressed that this reduction will be an important cost element in agricultural production for farmers. "Consumption of diesel is on average between 19-30% of the costs of agricultural production. And therefore, we want to give farmers an extra element of competitiveness in competition with farmers in the rest of the EU" Agriculture Minister stated .

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has mentioned that the lgislative act has been agreed informally at the European Commission level and was sent to Brussels for formal approval, and it is to be enforced after the official decision of the Commission is received.

"This aid is one agreed at EU level by Directive 96/2003, and is granted in a number of EU Member States," Minister of Agriculture has stated. The aid is to be managed through the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture.