Finance Minister Ronni Bar-On has presented, today, the proposals of the committee on green taxation to the government.
The proposal suggests a sliding-scale taxation model based upon how good the car is for the environment. A car will be given “green points” from 1-100 based upon how bad, or good, the car is for the environment. Based upon its “green points” the car will be taxed as little as 10% and can be taxed as much as 60%.
I think that this is a wonderful idea. However, I am not sure that the government did its homework, and I’ll tell you why. I was speaking with a friend the other day who mentioned that she wanted to buy a car. I told her that I had heard that there was tax breaks when buying eco-friendly cars. My friend’s response was that she’ll be friendly to the environment when she can afford to be, meanwhile she has to get to work.
Even with paying less (or nothing if you go electric) for gasoline, environmentally friendly cars, currently, cost so much more than the regular gas-guzzlers that it just doesn’t pay! If the government only wants to be able to brag about how advanced they are, that’s fine, thanks for the bone! However, if they are serious about fazing out the usage of cars on the road which are bad for the environment than they should make sure that there is at least a chance for the average person to buy one of these cars. Meanwhile, as usual, the good tax breaks will only line the pockets of the rich.
Author: Jack Reichert
As far back as he can remember Jack Reichert has been interested in the environment. In the second grade, he rallied all of his classmates to donate one recess a week to cleaning up litter from the schoolyard. That was the same year that a city councilman asked him to help with his campaign because of the letter Jack had written asking him to clean up Boston Harbor. Ever since Jack has followed the development of the international green conscience with anticipation and hope that one day we will treat Mother Earth with the respect she deserves and not turn her into another Giving Tree. For tips, feedback and prophet sightings, Jack can be reached at jack (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
This is deja-news….so it was when the green cars started making the scene in North America in a big way about 5 years ago. Still hard for the not-as-wealthy to afford one, and so they hang on another year to their old, depleted, gas-guzzling, smog-spewing junkers.
There was a lot of advocacy towards making the new cars accessible to all; but just look at the sad stats on how many ‘regular folks’ actually own and drive one!
Can the clean car ever become as commonplace as say, the rooftop solar panels that heat water in most peoples’ homes? Let’s hope!