Van Miert plans new EC roadtax
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• EC transport Commissioner Karel van Miert is to propose radical changes to EC road tax harmonisation plans.
At a European Commission meeting in Brussels next week he will suggest that member states should implement their own road tax systems which would not be as high as the previous proposal of around 2,000ecus (E2,700) a year. These taxes would be allowed to rise over two to three years, as long as they did not exceed each country's total expenditure on infrastructure.
A spokesman for van Miert stresses that these parallel tax systems should not discriminate against hauliers travelling through EC countries, or limit free movement between those countries.
The move is designed to placate the Germans, who say disparities in fiscal laws across the EC create unfair competition.