The Finance Ministry is weighing a possible increase in sales tax on cars. Another possibility is to raise taxes on the environmentally friendly vehicles, electric and hybrid, which enjoy tax incentives today to encourage car shoppers to think green. This is perhaps the least popular alternative, for taking steps to push shoppers away from a ‘green’ decision would be met with much disapproval.
The sales tax on new cars in Israel today is a whopping 82%, but speaking from a relative standpoint, quite a bit less than 120% several decades ago. However, treasury officials today are looking at hiking that tax to 88%, a move that would generate a hefty sum for the government.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
That’s ridiculous, cars are excessively taxed in Israel even still today in comparison to other developed economies. But why should electric vehicles pay less than everyone else? Less or no exhaust emissions by the vehicle simply means that the fuel is burnt somewhere else instead – at the power station to make the electricity. After transferring it through the power grid and using batteries to store and release it, is there really a net reduction in emissions at all – if that is what they are calling ‘Green’ – that everyone else should have to subsidise them?? And is it really fair to charge all the other motorists more given the fact that for the vast majority of car users their vehicle type is simply not available in a electric or hybrid version in Israel??
Sorry to be so unpolitically correct but all this ‘thinking green’ talk, especially in Israel, sounds to me far too much more like leftist mumbo-jumbo than any real connection to any relevant mitzvot like say bal tashchit (please tell me if I am missing a more relevant mitzvah)… Hate to say it but ‘green’ in this part of the world has more of a connotation to radical Islam than it does to enviromentalism!
Ido – “green” cars like the Toyota Prius use substatially less gas than do similar standard cars. The only version sold in Israel is a hybrid, not a plug-in, so there’s no shifting of the fuel burning to another location. Specifically, a standard car of similar size in Israel gets between 14 and 16 kilometers per liter, whil the Prius gets 27.
As to whether Israel needs this – Tel Aviv is an exceptionally poluted city, with smog levels that are worse than Los Angeles. Such polution has been shown conclusively to be bad for people’s health, so reducing it would likely fall under the category of “venishmartem l’nafsosechem”.
an Israeli Yid
anIsraeliYid: okay thanks for the info!