Too dirty for the Japs, just right for us?

Fact. As cars get older they get dirtier. So sensible countries like Japan and most European ones (EU members) either tax these cars very heavily as they get older, so people are discouraged from buying them, or employ other measures to similar effect.

In Malta, however, we are merrily buying these older Japanese cars, cheaper, because for some reason we are not only not taxing these cars more because they dirty more but we are actually taxing them less than an equivalent new and therefore cleaner one, so they are even cheaper than they should be.

There is absolutely no point to joining the EU or adopting EU directives in the environmental field, when simultaneously we are actually encouraging the importation of dirtier second-hand cars.

And this is not a trickle. It is a flood. According to the editor of the Motoring Magazine "second-hand imports [are] now conquering no less than half the market" ( September 2003).

There is a loophole which the government needs to act on. This loophole is giving an advantage to the importers of second-hand (which must mean dirtier) cars.

Both sides in this debate have taken out large full page ads in an effort to win public opinion, but this is one case where the finance minister needs to put the health of the nation before the interests of car importers.

Our air is dirty enough already. Cars are one of our major pollutants. Why on earth are we seeking to increase the number of dirty cars in Malta? And second-hand cars are dirtier, whatever the UVIA (Used Vehicle Importers Association) says and however many certificates they produce.

And anyway the Japs do not want them! The Japs are exporting them to mugs like us, and worse still, the government is helping them, albeit not deliberately?

What is happening to the polluter-pays-principle in environmental management here? If people want to kid themselves by buying an old car for Lm7,000 which has been "reconditioned" and has all the extras (for which you would pay more if the car was new), all well and good. But why should we, the breathers of this country's air, not make them pay for their dirtier car?

And where are all these second-hand cars going to be dumped! Naturally they will be off the road and aging faster than newer cars, so we are encouraging more waste to be produced quicker?!

And for a country with a deficit and a finance minister who has to be as creative as possible, what is the point of the government losing revenue from getting less tax from more second-hand cars?

Nothing about this debate stacks up in the government's favour. Nothing in this debate stacks up in the interest of the public. Nothing of it makes sense in the context of all the environmental directives we have taken on.

And the most glaringly obvious fact is that we are importing cars the Japs do not want because they are too dirty for them!

Calling us a Mickey Mouse country was bad enough. Do we have to be a second-hand country too?

A country where grandiose principles are spouted but where on the ground the reality is so very different.

Hopefully our minister of finance will take steps to close this loophole and encourage a level playing field. The fact that suddenly we are buying so many more second-hand, which means dirtier, cars is proof enough that the level playing field is not operating well at all...