Tuesday, 4th November 2008 - 15:47CET
AN questions environmental reasons for new taxes
Azzjoni Nazzjoni this afternoon dismissed the budget as a “a budget of hot air”.
“CO2 emissions are the government's latest convenient excuse to further fleece an overburdened public of its hard earned earnings,” the party said.
It said that the argument surrounding climate change was far from settled.
“To impose a tax regime on the premise of a flimsy hypothesis is at best short-sighted and will only serve to destabilise further our economy and standard of living. Will the government refund the tax payers if and when the man-made climate change theory is conclusively debunked?” the party asked.
Furthermore, the government's assertion that alternative energy was somehow more efficient (implying that it was cheaper) was also wrong, AN said. At best, alternative energy ,like wind turbines, was only useful in alleviating peak demand and at worst, such as on a windless day, next to useless and conventionally powered backup would still be required to meet the demand
“The CO2 emissions- based tax measures introduced, including those on cars will simply hurt most those who can afford them least such as those who cannot afford a new car,” the party said.
“The truth is that Environmentalism, no matter how irrational, is being slowly but surely elevated to a state religion and the government (whether it believes in it or not) finds it ever more convenient to tax in its name.”
It added that the income tax incentives were unashamedly token. The raise in fuel tax alone would cancel out the projected savings.
“The only welcome news was of the reduction of tax on motorcycles, the need to have building energy efficiency certification before permits are granted and the prospect of a liberalized mass transportation market” AN said, adding that the proposals came “straight out” of its manifesto.
“Most importantly the budget fails to address the fundamental issues. The government still fails to understand that economies cannot be centrally driven. It fails to understand that the working public would prefer the situation where it would be relieved of taxation and given less in the form of 'benefits' in return. – The public does not want a big daddy to deny them of their earnings only to see it spent irresponsibly. The public and the productive community want more independence from and less dependence on the state,” AN added.
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Comments
With the grants the government announced for renw.engery i will definetely do my part...already purchased a solar heater & m interested to install a pv system. Hope youre not the type of guy that own 2 cars, the Eur44k car mentioned for the wknds & a junk for the week!!....in that case i suggest you fit your "hightech" DPF for the week....Ashamed of myself??!.....why????.....you live here!! you simply have to pay like all d rest, no one better than the others...otherwise i suggest that you migrate.....& take your motor fleet with you!!.....
If I managed to buy this vehicle and paid more to be eco-friendly, should I accept this stupidity that "for just few Euros" more a year, I must pay this unjustifiable and unethical license increase? Is this the way you reason things out? Is it true?? You should feel ashamed of yourself if this is the way you reason things out my friend. What right do you have to include me in sharing the burden of the environment along with those who pollute if I OPTED AND PAID NOT TO POLLUTE? Now i'll tell you what to do, buy a photovolatiac but pay part of the electricity bills too to help others!
Well Done for being environmental friendly!!!.....but come on!!!....you managed to purchase @ Eur44k car, you cannot afford a yearly license increment after the seventh year!!.....everyone must contribute for the environment.....cos we all live in it!
Also, engines here will wear slower than those in larger countries. The latter travel more distances in the same period. There is no reason in Malta that cars should not serve for a longer period than those abroad. So why force people to change them?
As if the utility increases were not enough for this year, this budget will be taking more money from our pockets through such misguided fiscal measures.
Budget Ahdar tassew.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should not save energy – we import all our needs and the government should see to it that future buildings are designed to minimise energy loss. But this has nothing to do with CO2 emissions. It is common sense economy.
The CO2 myth is not even believed by the politicians anymore. It is just a cynical tool aimed at stealing from the hard working population to finance inefficient and wasteful politicians, the 170,000 bureaucrats the EU proudly parades, as well as themselves, of course.
Therefore, can someone explains to me, why my road licence should increase over time if my car will not generate more emissions over it's lifetime!!!???
So I spent hundreds/thousands of Euros more to get it with a DPF, out of my own will, and instead of receiving a "thank-you" or a rebate from the government, I will be paying more for choosing to be environmental friendly! People.. wake-up!
Mela mhux hekk siehbi...let the oil run out, "If it ever happens"...if you find comfort in what ONE american 'expert' has to say good luck to you , Im happy for you. please don't poison any undecided minds with this naive thought.
How ridiculous and funny! Some people seem to suffer from delusions of grandeur! Does any one of them have shares in Exxon or what!?
Do you really believe what the UN says?
Nobody is saying we should not take care about the environment
However we cannot put it as a religion, as the greens, and many other extreme left wingers put it. Science evidence is not yet concluded and it is a fact that throughout history the world passes from these changes, with or without emmissions.
Europe first has to survive this dark period in the economy and then when the economy is again on track we can tackle these problems as well, although it will be useless, if countries like India and China will not sign any climate change treaties.
With these measures Europe is making its industries less competitive and eventually further jobs will be lost.
Time for Europe to start using again some common sense and not madness
I conclude(my opinion) that the government wants us to use more energy and the revenue will be greater and the sin of the government will be forgiven through our pockets(souls)
Everybody with even a rudimentary scientific knowledge knows that it oil is a finite resource and oil reserves will be used up sooner rather than later. And by the way, not all oil is burnt for energy - it is needed as the raw material for the plastics industry. But do not worry - if oil happens to finish then we will see!
It is true that some climate scientists are not convinced that human activities are behind climate change but these represent a minority. Most climate scientists agree that it is very likely that global warming is the result of emissions from human activities. The latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that, were it not for human emissions of greenhouse gases, over the last 50 years the effects of solar activity and volcanism would have likely caused cooling rather than warming.
However some of the contributors here seem to prefer AN's version of climate change. So be it. Readers who want to know the most recent scientific evidence about climate change should do well to look at the IPCC report at http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm
The problem however is that the current government is actively connecting environmentalism and the pursuit of alternative energy with socially regressive measures. It could also be the fact that the government is using pro-environmental measures as a veil to cover their fiscal irresponsibility past and present. This is made much more evident when one considers certain basic facts. Only a couple of years ago certain government ministers argued that alternative energy is costlier and will not solve things. All of a sudden this scenario has completely reversed.
The u-turn is nonetheless welcome. In principle I am not against budgetary measures aimed at fiscally punishing environmental damage. Yet there exists a newly found dilemma which the government is admittedly aware of. The world is in an economic crisis of devastating proportion. Perhaps it would have been wiser to issue more incentives rather than taxes. The situation is precarious and problematic because environmental protection is equally as important as injecting money in people's pockets. Yet the proper balance, in my opinion, was not achieved.
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At least try to be consistent with you say. Because I'm getting the impression that yo uare trying to scrape cheap votes!!!!
Do you guys want us to take u seriously??????
Malta's number one priority should be to make enough wind power to run reverse osmosis and produce enough local food a high percentage of the population.
Things are going to happen in the next few years, that many would have not thought possible,
it will be every country for themselves when it happens.
Be prepared Malta, very prepared.