; Germans revive visitor tax plan
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• British international hauliers could be paying around £3,000 a year to run a truck on German autobahns from next year.
The Germans plan to reintroduce the controversial tax, following its rebuff two months ago from the European Court of Justice.
It was a European Commission objection to the previous plan that led to a ruling from the court that it ran counter to EC rules on discrimination. This was because Bonn wanted to compensate its own hauliers for the tax through cuts in VED. This time it looks as if German lorries will have to pay the full amount, ranging up to £3,100 for a 40tonner.
The judges did not challenge German rights to impose taxes; they ruled that the EC treaty requires identical treatment for foreign and national carriers.
The ruling was a double blow: German hauliers wanted to fend off foreign rivals paying lower VED; the Greens thought it would cut numbers of trucks.