PRESS: AEB supports higher tax for Euro-3 class cars in Russia

MOSCOW, Feb 25 (PRIME) -- The Association of European Businesses (AEB) has supported the idea of raising the tax on the cars of the Euro-3 emission standards in Russia to stimulate withdrawal of old cars from the market, Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday quoting AEB’s letter to Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov.

Russia ratified the Paris Agreement, but 82.3% of medium-duty or heavy trucks in Russia are of the Euro-3 environmental class, which not only hurts the environment, but raises the probability of car crashes, as an average age of a Euro-3 car exceeds 15 years, the AEB said in the letter as quoted by Kommersant.

The AEB suggests state subsidies for the purchases of new cars, restrictions for Euro-3 cars to enter large cities, and a higher transportation tax for owners of cars with the environmental classes of Euro-3 and below. The association also suggests raising tariffs for these cars in the Platon system, which are now only paid by trucks with a weight of over 12 tonnes.

Due to the potential social sensitivity of the offer, the AEB suggests raising the tax only for commercial machines at the first stage starting with trucks with a weight of over 6 tonnes. The tax should be raised first in several regions, and then expanded to the other regions and to the other categories of cars, the business daily reported.

The Industry and Trade Ministry said it discussed a similar idea on February 20, but later said that the idea was to raise taxes only on commercial cars of classes up to Euro-3.

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