Drivers in the Netherlands will be the first in Europe to start paying ‘road tax’ according to the kilometres they drive rather than an annual flat fee for owning a vehicle, under proposals approved by the Dutch government.
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The kilometres will be tracked with a GPS device to be installed in every vehicle. This will record each journey and send the information to a billing agency.
The proposal is that the kilometre charge would replace road tax and purchase tax in 2012. The Dutch transport ministry expects the number of kilometres travelled to drop by 15% as the charge on the distance driven will lead people to opt more readily for public transport. This would reduce carbon and fine particle emissions by over 10%, it estimates.
The Dutch government says that proceeds from the kilometre charge will not exceed the combined proceeds from the ‘old’ taxes. As a result, the majority of motorists will benefit from the new system, it says. The proceeds from the kilometre charge will go directly into the infrastructure fund. This fund will be used to build roads, railways and other types of infrastructure.
Besides the base tariff, the law allows a rush hour surcharge to be charged. This will apply to structural bottlenecks in the road network and potential short cuts.
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By GlobalDataThe issue over non-Dutch drivers on the roads has not yet been resolved.
