Call for eco-taxation to fund green initiatives

There is currently no difference in the rationale between eco taxes and that of all other taxes intended simply to generate revenue, Nature Trust Malta charged yesterday.

In a statement, the environmental organisation urged the government to differentiate between eco-taxes and conventional taxes by creating an environmental fund in which money from eco taxes could be ring fenced.

The fund would go towards environmental projects and activities, it explained, urging authorities to reconsider how eco taxes are collected and used.

NTM insisted that if the system were made more transparent, it would be an incentive for taxpayers to be more proactive in shouldering the tax burden.

Through this environmental fund, funding for law enforcement could also be provided, as well as for nature conservation projects, marine protected areas and to provide fiscal assistance to NGOs.

Only through concrete fiscal assistance could NGOs become even more professional in their work and be of better service to the community.

An eco tax, Nature Trust said, could only qualify as such if its overriding aim was clearly that of safeguarding the environment and not of raising more revenue for the government's coffers.