Owners of those huge 4x4s and ‘Chelsea Tractors’ will now have to pay a £25 pound pollution tax each day they enter the city centers in Britain, according to a new bill passed by the government.
The bill states a £25 tax for all cars that emit more than 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. Small and hybrid car owners will however be exempt.
The Government’s new Local Transport Bill includes a clause saying that any council considering introducing a new ‘pay-as-you-drive’ scheme will now have to take the environmental factors into account.
Owners seem to lose more as according to a proposal drivers will be charged for every mile they drive and these charges will also depend on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by their car.
Further proposals have also taken into account the currently discounted drivers who live inside the congestion charge zone. Currently, they are entitled to a discount of 90% but in future they are expected to pay the full rate. This would add to the woes of all ‘Chelsea Tractor’ owners who in future would have to pay about £6,500 annually.
Will taxes solve the problems?
Taxes might not really put an end to all environment problems, different people might take these taxes differently some might give away their cars and buy new ones but for others, these taxes might not be anything more than their status maintenance costs.
A £25 pollution Tax… Who cares!
People who have already spend thousands of pounds to own such high-status machines will not prefer to step down and board a smaller or a much cheaper car that does not emit more than 120 grams of carbon dioxide to save a mere £25.
Difficult to implement globally:
When we talk about environment, we don’t actually have to think about a single country, we need to have schemes that the whole world can easily implement. Such schemes of taxing car owners can only be undertaken by developed countries where the per capita income is high, however when we talk about some developing countries which account for more pollution because of rapid industrialization, such schemes are bound to fail, because here no one would be ready to pay fines to drive a car.
Removing one ‘Chelsea Tractor’ from the road may mean adding more small cars on it:
Even if people owning 4X4s are forced to buy smaller cars which emit less CO2, they might buy more than one car and the net environment profit will still be a big zero.
People might get used to the tax:
Initially people might back away from these taxes but all those planning to buy a new 4X4 will already have the taxes in mind and will regard it as a maintenance cost.
A similar scenario took place in London when a congestion charge was introduced in 2003 to cut traffic, initially it seemed that the charge may tackle some woes when the congestion fell by almost a third in its first year of implementation but after that things again came back to normal and now it’s only 8% below the pre-charging levels.
So, at the end we’re gaining nothing. The proposed tax plan seems nothing more than a political ploy by green ambassadors. It simply means – if you’ll kill, you’ll be fined…however, if you want to kill, go ahead, you’re free to do that, but please let the government too pocket in something. In any case, environment will remain a loser.
