‘Israel declares ‘revolution’ against gas guzzlers’

REUTERS – 08/06/09

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has proposed a new customs levy on large vehicles and a rebate for disposing of older gas-guzzling models. He hopes this plan would persuade the public to switch to hybrid cars while earning the state up to $100 million a year. The plan would be implemented over the next decade but must first be approved by parliament’s finance committee. High levels of carbon emissions from a growing fleet of private and commercial vehicles is increasingly eating into the country’s gross domestic product through, for example, costs associated with illness, damage to buildings and other infrastructure. The government has already raised fuel taxes and increased the value added tax to 16.5% from 15.5%. Critics fear the proposed tax plan would actually result in an increase in the price of smaller cars, but Stenitz argued that purchase tax would be cut right back to just 30% for hybrid vehicles and that the bulk of the tax would be felt by purchasers of larger, luxury automobiles or SUVs. Read the article…