BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Ford has sued the Romanian state for $3.5 million (€2.62 million), duties it paid on spare parts it imported from South Korea, a company official said Monday.
In court papers published in the media Monday, Ford Romania SA said it imported engines and gear boxes for automobiles from South Korea between Nov. 2007 and Nov. 2008. At the time Ford was producing cars for GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co, said Nadia Crisan, Ford representative.
Crisan told the Associated Press that auditors informed the company it had overpaid customs and duties for the parts, money the company was unable to get back from authorities. She said Ford had filed a suit and the next hearing would be held on April 8.
Mircea Matei, a tax official in the city of Craiova, was quoted by Mediafax news agency as saying Ford should have asked for the money a maximum of a year after the company did the imports.
Ford Motor Co. bought its plant in Romania from the government in March 2008. The company makes light vans there and is expected to start making the new B-Max, similar to the subcompact Fiesta, this year.
Once fully in use, the plant will employ 7,000 people and make up to 300,000 cars and 300,000 engines a year.
