Back in the slow lane

Being a car enthusiast since I was a little child, and being surrounded by a vast number of friends who share the same hobby, I've been waiting for quite a long time for the government to come up a much-needed change in the car registration system. So there I was, early Tuesday morning, quite surprised and excited when on the front page of The Times I see the headline: Car tax reform gathers speed.

I was excited because of the fact that my dream of buying the car which costs €14,000, but which with registration tax and VAT costs a whopping €25,500, was somewhat closer.

People started flooding the papers with letters and articles, until Sunday, when the Finance Minister was reported as saying that "the new system will be a replacement of the present tax regime, not an elimination". So basically, Lawrence Gonzi was beating about the bush when, asked about the VAT on the tax in an interview before the general election, he said that it is not just the VAT (which by the way is illegal) that will be removed but also the costly tax. What the Finance Minister is telling us is this: "Hey Mr Average earner, we are going to remove the big lump sum tax, but alas we still need the money, so we're going to split it up into yearly instalments.

Guess what, we don't care about your safety, or how eco-friendly your new car is, all we're interested in is the revenue, and most probably, over the long run we'll be charging more than we did before. So you do know what you have to do - keep fixing your old and miserable car, or else spare a couple of thousand euros from family spending and go give them to the government."

Guess what, less than a month after the general election, seeing the Prime Minister going to Castille every morning reminds us that some things truly never change!