Car registration tax

As temperatures and fuel prices keep soaring, switching to more environment-friendly and economic means of transport appears inviting - until you visit the Transport Authority (ADT) to pay your car registration tax!

Using a 30 to 40mp/g family car simply to get to and from work tends to be expensive, not to mention the harm it causes the environment. A practical alternative would be a more environment-friendly 70mp/g car that would also halve your fuel expenses - such as the Smart.

But why should you pay the average Lm5,000 for this type of second-hand car costs? By surfing the Net on some prominent UK sites you will find Smarts (full extras) costing around Lm2,000 (+Lm400 shipping). Or rather that is what our British EU cousins pay for it, but since we Maltese appear to be on a different level of EU membership (worse roads and lower salaries) we're expected to pay more - much more.

A visit to the ADT's Website ( www.maltatransport.com/en/ltd/motorvehicles/registration/registrationtax.shtml?s=55E8DBF9-7D7512160210-7A03 ) explains the shameless method that will separate you from your hard-earned (and already taxed) cash. At 600cc, the Smart falls under the category of vehicles less than 1,000cc for which you have to pay 50.5 per cent of the invoice amount. This works out at Lm1,010, but according to the powers that be it isn't cruel enough!

So a magic number of Lm1,200 minimum tax has been set. Still wanting to squeeze more juice out of the orange, an outrageous 18 per cent VAT has to be paid on the Lm1,200, leading to a total damage of Lm1,400!

I've been following the car registration tax saga for quite a while, and although Malta has been asked to rectify by several fronts (including the EU), all these cries are unfortunately falling on deaf ears. It's not difficult to understand why - the revenue from this tax is a windfall.

We keep hearing excuses like keeping fewer cars on the roads, but these cars actually keep the country's economy running unless people are expected to walk to work!

High tax on cars means that when you buy a car you will sacrifice safety features like airbags, Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS), Traction Control (TCS), Electronic Stability Program (ESP), etc. to get a cheaper price. In most European countries these are standard - but not in Malta! The results are more accidents that could have easily been prevented.

High tax on cars also means that you will change your car every 15 years instead of every five. So we have a phenomenon in Malta that in my frequent travels abroad I have never witnessed - black smoke emitted by many cars. The result is polluted air in our lungs with the consequential diseases.

I am disappointed that my vote for the EU hasn't been 100 per cent effective - we were supposed to enjoy the whole package, but in cases like these we don't - even if it means that Malta is infringing EU law! (Article 90 of the EC treaty and the VAT directive).

Indeed, the chance to avoid paying tax on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) cars was once presented - but middle class citizens like myself cannot afford a 5 Series BMW. Was it fair to offer tax exemption to those who are in a better position to pay it?

At least, as Maltese citizens and pseudo-EU citizens we still have our vote...