John Bentley on South Africa’s “Green Tax”
South African CAR Magazine’s John Bentley has just posted a rather critical response to the Department of Mineral and Energy’s proposed new “green tax” on certain vehicles, arguing that the Government’s motives are to make money, not to protect the environment.
Bentley makes a number of points that I agree with:
- He cites a motor-industry insider who says that the government should not take the current closed-door approach in the formulation of this new policy. Indeed, for an effective, workable policy to be implemented, it’s probably a good idea to include all the relevant stakeholders in the process.
- He points out that motor vehicles in South Africa are already heavily taxed: 25% of what a consumer pays for the cheapest locally-made car goes to the government. This figure rises to about 50% for larger, imported vehicles. One wonders whether a heavy-handed implementation of a further tax on top of our already high vehicle taxes is necessarily the answer.
- He correctly states that old, poorly maintained small-capacity vehicles are often actually worse polluters than new large-engined vehicles.
Nevertheless, I disagree with Bentley on the following point. He argues that
“most of the pollution created by the national vehicle park is generated by older vehicles, so penalising new vehicles (and cutting down sales as a result) would simply worsen the situation.”
While I can’t comment on his claim that older vehicles are responsible for the majority of South Africa’s vehicle related emissions, I think that Bentley’s off the mark by assuming that a prospective SUV buyer, having been dissuaded from buying a gas-guzzler due to the green tax, will simply not buy a new car. It’s far more likely that somebody who wants to buy a new car will buy a new car - the green tax might just affect the type of car they buy. You can’t argue against the environmental benefits of a tax that encourages people to buy cars that produce fewer emissions.
A green tax is, in this writer’s opinion, an excellent idea. Unfortunatley, the majority of motorists will not take eco-friendly motoring measures of their own accord so it’s up to Government to get the ball rolling. Nevertheless, the implementation of a well-thought out, effective policy is paramount. Hopefully, the Department of Minerals and Energy will take that valid points of critics such as Mr. Bentley into account, while remaining true to their stated aims of reducing the environmental impact of South Africa’s motorists.
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I think it would be bad if the government were to add this tax to the current bouquet of taxes they implement. It will prolong the life of old cars and, more importantly, trucks that should be removed from our roads.
It would make more sense for motorists to have to have their emissions checked regularly (perhaps every one or two years). Unacceptable emissions would make it impossible for the owner to get a new vehicle license. I have already seen something like this implemented in Hawaii.
Perhaps it would be a better idea for the government to re-evaluate their vehicle taxes. Instead of the green tax being implemented on top of the current new vehicle tax, they should change the tax so that heavy emitters (not necessarily proportional to the size of the vehicle) are more heavily taxed. Thus, vehicles with inefficient engines are taxed most. This would also mean that efficient vehicles would be cheapest (and cheaper than they are now), leading to higher sales for those, thus encouraging manufacturers to produce even more efficient vehicles.
Also, if the government were really dedicated to reducing traffic and emissions thereof, they would improve the rail infrastructure. This would, of course, reduce the number of trucks on our roads, thus significantly reducing emissions and vastly improving the lifespan of our roads.