Germany wants to raise air ticket taxes by 74 per cent
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
The German government aims to raise 740 million euros a year, which will be used to reduce VAT on train tickets.
Germany wants to raise air ticket taxes by 74 per cent
The German government aims to raise 740 million euros a year, which will be used to reduce VAT on train tickets.
The Germany government is aiming to raise taxes on short-haul flights by approximately 74 per cent. It is a particularly strong measure, designed to discourage journeys for which alternatives exist that are far less harmful in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. The draft law also makes no exception for medium-haul routes, those exceeding 2,500 kilometres.
NEWS: Germany’s increased flight taxes are planned to enter effect in April which will see all fares rise ~28%, whether domestic or long-haul
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VAT on train tickets should fall from 19 to 7 per cent
If the text is approved definitively, the legislation will come into force from April 2020. At that point, the state will impose a charge of 13.03 euros on each purchase of a ticket for a short-haul flight (currently the figure is 7.50 euros). For flights of between 2,500 and 6,000 kilometres, the tax will instead be 33.01 euros (compared to the current 23.43 euros).
For even longer routes, the tax will rise from 42.18 to 59.43 euros. But this is not, at least according to the Berlin government's announcements, solely a new source of funding for the public purse. The idea is to bring in an additional 740 million euros a year, a sum that will be used to offset a significant reduction in VAT on train tickets. Which, from next January, will fall from 19 to 7 per cent.
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze explained the need to rethink transport taxation in these words: "We cannot risk Germany failing to meet its environmental targets." A new climate plan presented last September should allow Europe's largest economy to shift up a gear on climate. This comes with the knowledge that the promises made so far will not be kept: the country will not manage to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent, as planned, by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
Germany has not kept the promises it has made so far on climate
The new target is to achieve a reduction of 55 per cent within the next ten years, again compared to 1990. While at the same time raising the share of energy production from renewable sources to 65 per cent of the total, within the same timeframe. To do so, however, a new emissions trading scheme will be established, similar to the European ETS mechanism, which has nevertheless not delivered all the results hoped for.
Germany will drastically increase its tax on airline tickets lesechos.fr/amp/1140616?__…
For this reason too, it must be said that the climate plan as a whole — the fruit of complex negotiations between the conservative and social-democratic components of the governing coalition — has been judged insufficiently ambitious by the ecological opposition and by numerous environmental organisations.