The price of cars

I refer to Simon Busuttil's response to Julian Zammit in connection with car registration tax (October 5), in particular to his statement that the Commission holds that there is no incompatibility. On the contrary, the Commission has already...

I refer to Simon Busuttil's response to Julian Zammit in connection with car registration tax (October 5), in particular to his statement that the Commission holds that there is no incompatibility.

On the contrary, the Commission has already recommended that this tax be abolished by 2016 and replaced by other means of raising revenue, that is, annual road tax, fuel tax.

As to his statement that the UK has the highest prices in Europe this is a bit rich coming from someone from Malta. UK car prices as well as fuel prices are not controlled by government diktat but by the free market. Anyone in the UK can buy a car from anywhere in the EU without paying VAT or registration taxes in the country of origin and only pay VAT in the UK at 17.5 per cent as no registration taxes are imposed here.

I believe the government in Malta is under great pressure from vested interests in the motor trade to maintain this high level of taxation to protect their interests.

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