The introduction of the car tax has been accompanied by a wave of accusations from disgruntled motorists, as if motorists had lost confidence in the governing coalition, not the other way around. First, reformist Siim Kallas accused tax opponents of lacking patriotism and insufficient appreciation of their country, then Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev made it clear to the readers that people should be more frugal and that taxes will not be increased, but instead reduced.
Recently, however, Pärtel-Peeter Pere, a member of the Riigikogu and member of the Reform Party, has started to make it clear that drivers pollute nature, sow death and pay better for all the bad things they do to the planet and humanity. It seems that the blame could certainly go further, given that living in general tends to have an environmental impact.
A car gives independence
But we take the repeated recommendations to get yourself a more economical car and avoid SUVs. In Northern Tallinn, where I am the district mayor, there are undoubtedly more opportunities to switch to, for example, electric cars or other more economical vehicles, or to give up the car altogether. But in rural areas, a large, strong and perhaps even four-wheel drive car may be the most optimal solution.
Having been hopelessly stuck in the mud on a spring country road with a small car, I know what I’m talking about. Rural people know this even better. Having driven a more powerful four-wheel drive car on windy roads, I also know what won’t leave me in trouble.
People must be allowed to manage themselves in a situation where the state and municipalities are not really able to help them enough. After all, the road blackening programs, which worked well in the intervening years, have now essentially been put to a standstill.
A car is the fastest, most individual and most flexible solution in sparsely populated areas, leaving the burden on the resident’s wallet, not the state’s – unlike public transport. It is not realistic that everywhere across the country there are excellent roads with brilliant maintenance plus perfectly functioning public transport. So that the snowplow is always ready everywhere and the bus is constantly going to every remote village. For this, the number of Estonian taxpayers is too small and the roads are too long.
The only thing that helps
A four-wheel-drive and tall car – the most preferred object of robbery by taxpayers – is the only thing that will help if you need to get to school or work on stuck roads in a rural area. Taxing such cars is also a special oppression of people living outside the centers and effectively directing rural people to the city so that they have to drive less.
The car is and will remain the most important solution, and people’s dependence on car transport in the countryside is about twice as high as in the city. Not that public transport in the city offers all solutions, even between larger centers – what public transport compression are we talking about? There are three buses a day from Tartu to Rakverre. If four were driving, what difference in quality would it make? However, the driver turns the ignition key and the problems are solved. Comparable flexibility can be achieved in public transport at very high costs.
What to tax at all is a matter of social agreement. Whether it’s a car, a house or alcohol – you can find arguments in favor of everything. But now there is no such agreement. There are only the power grabs of those who won the majority in the elections and we all know that the decisions being pushed through now were not the issue of these elections. There were no debates about it.
Where the trouble is greatest, there the peeling is nearest
The car tax stories come at a time when seven skins have already been flayed from the taxpayer’s back. People’s savings have been shrinking for some time and the middle class is getting poorer. Currently, they are desperately trying to patch up the hole created by the income tax changes, sacrificing people’s livelihoods, as well as the competitiveness of the economy. Estonia is already an expensive country, but we are rapidly moving towards even greater cost and bankruptcy of companies. We could talk about the car tax, if it were not done by improvising the budget in a panic, but as a general well-thought-out tax reform, where some taxes are raised, some taxes are lowered.
It is sad that by justifying the patching of this tax loophole they have started to impoverish drivers, it is also found that there is no need to put much emphasis on the car infrastructure and that there is no need for new good quality roads. Green extremists consider reducing the speed limit as almost the only measure to achieve safer traffic. It is especially hypocritical when money has been taken away from programs for the reconstruction of dangerous places on the roads in the national road maintenance plan. If we talk about reducing the number of traffic deaths, the number of victims has decreased significantly over the decades, but better quality roads and safer cars also play a big role in this.
The driver pays anyway
It must be understood that the driver already pays and not a little – namely the fuel excise. And the owner of a bigger car also pays more for fuel. So the pressure to buy a cheaper and more economical car is already there. How much more does the state have to prescribe it?
The development of the economy and society is sustained by speed and fast connections. They must also be affordable. It is also time to appreciate the good that cars and good roads bring to society. Independence and flexibility are among them. Our day holds more. Yes, we are a car civilization. And the shared vehicle – the bus – uses the same infrastructure. There is certainly room for reducing car use in cities, but it doesn’t have to be done by accusing drivers of a hundred deadly sins.
