The Government reopens the debate on the rise in taxes on diesel

The Ministry of Transport has reopened the melon of energy taxation and the design of a system that guarantees the future maintenance of the road network, which, predictably, will mean discussing the possible articulation of a toll on the highways or the Eurovignette.

The department of José Luis Ábalos has just submitted to public consultation the future Sustainable Mobility Law in which it announces as the first point a reform of taxation applied to energy sources and means of transport, in line with the objective of reducing emissions set by the draft Climate Change Law and the national air pollution control program.

This measure means reopening the options of an increase in taxation for diesel vehicles, in line with the plans that the European Union manages and that could also begin to be known after the summer.

The European Commission is preparing a reform of the energy taxation directive with the intention of penalizing the most emitting fuels so that they are aligned with the climate objectives for decarbonization. A measure that has also gained strength after transport emissions have increased over the past year, as the European Environment Agency has been responsible for attesting after several years of constant reductions.

The Government also already proposed an increase in diesel taxes in its draft Budget for 2019 but they were rejected by Congress and already in the previous legislature from the Executive insisted that work was going to be done to equalize the taxation of both fuels as a measure to stimulate a more sustainable mobility.

In fact, even the current Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, justified this increase in that “the repeated reports of the OECD and the European Commission are very clear” on the fact that Spain has an environmental taxation lower than the average, so she advocated “encouraging behaviors compatible with the environment.”

After the pact also reached this week to inject into the Spanish economy 140,000 million euros, the European Union has asked Spain to follow the fiscal guidelines that have been proposed for four years and among which also includes the increase in environmental taxation

The equalization of taxes between diesel and gasoline would mean an increase in the collection of the State of 2,393 million euros per year, according to estimates by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIRef), which said yesterday that this tax difference has reached its objective of promoting diesel in recent decades.

In its first study of the second phase of the Spending Review committed to the EU, the AIReF already takes into account for this estimate of extra collection that the equalization between both fuels would trigger a fall in the demand for diesel of 5.7%, since its price would rise by 7.72% compared to the current one.

Urban transport

The new regulations will also address how to incorporate into the legal system the precepts that allow establishing a system of financing urban transport based on stable, predictable and proportional criteria, so that a correct functioning of the different systems is achieved and uncertainty in the annual financing of operating costs is minimized.

The department of José Luis Ábalos also plans to develop the necessary regulation to ensure the coherence of the system of aid and subsidies in terms of mobility granted by the different public administrations, eliminating possible duplications and increasing its effectiveness.

The Government will establish the bases to guarantee a rigorous planning of transport infrastructures, which provides certainty to operators, as well as prioritization criteria for the investments undertaken by the State.

In terms of logistics, the ministry wants to address incentive systems linked to sustainability measures that promote the reduction of external transport costs, encouraging the transfer of goods to more sustainable modes such as the train. The new standard also aims to advance in the digitalization of the logistics and supply chain such as the creation of digital single windows.

The prior consultation will be open until October 30 to facilitate the participation of the sector and present before the end of the year the first draft of the Law.

Source: The Economist