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Villy Lopman writes in Äripäev: “Automobile taxes should not become a fine for non-urbanized people”

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Villy Lopman writes in Äripäev: “Automobile taxes should not become a fine for non-urbanized people”

Villy Lopman discusses the idea proposed by the Deputy Secretary-General for Tax and Customs Policy at the Ministry of Finance, Dmitri Jegorov, to introduce an automobile tax instead of the fuel excise duty. Jegorov said that Estonian urbanization is high and public transport allows people to get around well enough, therefore not every household needs to drive multiple cars.

Villy believes that with an automobile tax, it is very important to consider the problems of Estonian regional development as a whole and to ensure that the new tax does not cause further inequality in its simplicity. As rural motor travel is often due to the lack of public transport, and not the distances involved, it would be unfair to burden country people with an additional tax. “Automobile taxes should not become a fine for non-urbanized people”, says Villy.

According to the author of the article, the question is when, and not if, the automobile tax will be introduced. The government faces a considerable challenge to come up with an automobile tax that is fair.