Liberal-Conservatives offer to tax more those who drive their own cars

 "Ruling parties are responsible for more and more taxes, which will affect the poorer and middle class in particular. Those who buy cars at their own expense.

 

    The Ministry of Environment has ruled that the car registration tax, which was fresh and according to which people planned their lives and purchases, is not enough and an annual pollution tax needs to be introduced. Minister Simonas Gentvilas has said bluntly that this will encourage people to switch to newer and less polluting cars. Why those citizens buy cheap cars and maliciously do not go to the showrooms to look for new vehicles, the minister did not explain. People who have simply built up their lives under taxes that came into effect a little earlier are simply an insignificant mass here.

 

    The economist R. Kuodis has his arguments against it.

 

    Economist Raimondas Kuodis says that the proposal of the Ministry of Environment (MoE) to introduce an annual car use tax will not be an effective measure to reduce vehicle pollution.

 

    According to the economist, the new car use tax proposed by AM is more similar to the property tax, which will be felt most by people with lower incomes and those who drive older cars. According to R. Kuodis, the pollution tax is currently replaced by excise duties on fuel.

 

    "An attempt is being made to introduce such a regressive property tax. This thing has very little to do with pollution, because a pollution tax has been around for a long time, it is an excise duty on fuel. It correlates perfectly with the things that cause pollution - how many kilometers you drive, how fast you drive. <...>. It will turn out that for people who travel a thousand kilometers, for some pensioners with a fairly old polluting car [Volkswagen Passat - ELTA] living in the village, it will be a regression fee - they will pay close to a thousand a year, and the city dweller who runs every weekend to Palanga at high speed, will pay less, "R. Kuodis told the" Knowledge Radio "on Monday.

 

    According to the economist, the proposed tax changes are not adapted to the group of vehicles: when it comes to measures to reduce pollution, we should think first of all about taxes in the transport and logistics sector, which occupies a large part of the Lithuanian economy, and not for car drivers.

 

    End of quote.

 

    Again, the new tax is not applied to companies that make a profit, which simply deducts car expenses from expenses and reduces income tax, but to individuals.

 

    At the same time, the government supports the proposal to start increasing excise duties on fuel in 2023 and to include a carbon component in 2025. As a result, a liter of diesel would be € 0.187 more expensive in 2025 and € 0.347 more expensive in 2030.

 

    Again, a "gift" to those for whom a car is a necessity, such as those living in remote villages commuting to work. Let us add that any such increase in excise duty is included in the price of goods and services and is paid for by every citizen. Residents of the border regions are already driving for fuel to neighboring Poland, where fuel is much cheaper. Transport companies also avoid filling tanks in Lithuania."