Ministry clamps down on petrol smuggling by trucks

The Infrastructure Ministry said on Wednesday, that as of March 3 each truck entering Poland from Belarus with more than 200 litres of fuel in its tank will have to pay excise duty and VAT on the gas. With buses, the excise and VAT-free quota is 600 liters. The regulations follow the agreement recently signed between the Polish and Belarussian governments. The regulations exec uting the VAT and excise duties are not new, but so far these were not been enforced. The agreement is aimed at eliminating illegal sale of fuel by car riers, which incurred losses to the State Treasury estimated at zl. 1 billi on. (Rzeczpospolita, p. C2; www.onet.pl) J.K.