WHAT’S EMMISSION TAX?!?

What I hear you saying?

The government wants us to pay more tax?! Well in a short word…YES!

What is emissions tax? This is a new tax we’re expected to pay when purchasing our new cars.

Why do we need to pay this tax? Well it’s simple, we here on earth create pollution in everything we do and use. And one of our biggest contributors to the pollution level that we all contribute to, is driving our cars, Transporting our goods. So this new tax on vehicles is designed to curb the CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) emissions.

How are they going to tax us?

Well apparently we will be taxed on our new vehicle purchases. And obviously the more gas they guzzle the more tax you will pay because the more gas you guzzle the more Carbon dioxide your vehicle pumps out into the Atmosphere causing what we in Johannesburg can already see in the air. All the smog and smoke, that lurks in the air around us. When walking sometimes you can taste the Carbon dioxide in the air, especially at peak times during the day.

So how this is all going to work is as of the 1st September 2010. When we purchase a new vehicle we will have to pay for the amount of Carbon Dioxide the car emits. So from my research and understanding, I have summed this all up as follows.

We will pay R75 per gram per kilometre for each g/km above the 120g/km. So what this really means is that vehicles emitting between 300g/km and 450g/km of carbon dioxide like our 4x4s and our large engined luxury cars will be forking out an extra R13 500 to R24 750 extra ontop of the retail price. The Treasury hopes to increase the national revenue by R450 million in the upcoming financial year.

How this will help the environment at the moment it is introduced?

It wont except maybe make people re-look at the 4X4 and if it can be worked into the price and then the consumer pays it off. I don’t see this whole thing working for the environment much.

Petrol

Petrol does play a huge part in what we emmit out into the air through any vehile, including myself on my bike. Yes we have unleaded but South Africa’s fuel is nowhere at the quality it needs to be at for us to emit less Carbon Dioxide than we are now. And from my understanding we are years behind in the greener petrol, which our overseas friends already have, as well as their Hybrid cars. At this present date Toyota is the only vehicle manufacturers to have brought out the first Green car out in South Africa and it’s called the Prius. And this is the only passenger vehicle on the market where you don’t have to pay this emissions tax.

At this present moment in time, our government is still working on a flat rate for all our transporting companies, whether its busses or trucks