Call for higher taxes on luxury cars

Taxation on luxury cars consuming excessive amounts of fuel should increase drastically because of their adverse social and ecological impacts, Żminijietna - Voice of the Left, said yesterday.

Another method of cutting down emissions from transport is a widespread reform in public transport, the leftist group said.

It also appealed for a stand against raising the share of biofuels within the EU by the Maltese government and Maltese members of the European Parliament. Representatives of EU member states are meeting to decide upon sustainability criteria.

Żminijietna said EU leaders want to raise the share of biofuels in transport from the present levels of about two per cent to 10 per cent by 2020.

Increasing biofuel production will result in massive increases in food prices and more widespread hunger. The organisation said agricultural land is being used to produce biofuel instead of food crops, thus causing food shortage.

Comments

Jeffrey Abela-Wadge (1 month ago)

I fully disagree with this leftist movement - Zminijietna. Their views are extreme left bordering on communism. So now what? Do we all have to buy small cars that the government of the day decides? This is stupid and does not form part of the modern market system. Being a luxury car does not also always equate with consuming more petrol or diesel. In fact these upper level cars usually have advanced engines and more efficient and clean. The gas guzzlers are the four wheel drives which are increasing on Malta's roads. And still their owners should NOT be penalised either. It all depends on the mileage you cover during the year. If you have a luxury car and drive say 7000km in a year, and another person has a small car and drives 15000km in a year, isn't the latter polluting more? So no additional taxes should be levied on a car because of its class. If a tax is to be introduced, it is to be on the consumption of petrol/diesel since only consumption = pollution. At least all people will be treated fairly. At let us not forget too that the greatest culprits of pollution are certain industrial vans, trucks, buses, cranes etc which should be brought in order.

H Farrugia (on 14/4/08)

but for heaven's sake why are you giving such importance to this leftist movement?