"Green" cars price up!

Another turmoil has surfaced in the long-suffering Greek car market, after “Proto Thema’s” report on the change of the Special Registration tax with a new “green” law which will actually increase the price of small, non-energy-intensive cars and reduce the taxes of larger cars.

Officially, by means of a simple statement, the Environment Ministry denies that it has proposed this law to the Finance Ministry, but information abounds that the bill is ready to be submitt…

Under this law, the Environment Minister proposes to change the - undoubtedly wrong - Special Registration Tax, which has been bearing on the cars’ final value, even with prices 100% over its construction value. He wants to replace the SRT with a new tax which will result from emissions of pollutants and the Cc of the car. This, of course, would mean that the non-polluting, low-Cc cars would become cheaper, while the prices of the larger polluting cars would rise, introducing the so-called “incentives and disincentives” that apply to almost all of Europe.

Once more, Greece is going to be the first in the world to reward large displacement cars as opposed to smaller cars

How the new system will operate:

According to information, the SRT will be replaced by an… environment tax, which will increase in a percentile manner, through a formula, on the final price of the car, depending on engine size and emissions. The result of this equation will occur after  CO2 emissions are divided by 10 and added to the set rate. For example, we have a green car of 1,201 cubic centimeters, which emits just 125 grams of CO2 per km. This figure will be divided by 10 or 12.5, and this number will be added to the factor, in this case being 3.

In short, the default value of this car will have 15.5% added on, when SRT today only adds 12%. Please note that the more well-equipped a car is, the more its value goes up. And when we say “well-equipped”, we do not mean leather seats and interiors, but aluminium alloy wheels and electronic security systems which, especially in our country, save lives.

This is therefore a monstrous tax, with incredibly inspired tax rates that will increase the prices of the cheapest and smallest cars, ie those preferred by 70% of buyers today. It is a fact that the government’s added taxes to cars have made people choose smaller, more economic cars, and have dramatically reduced state revenue from the automotive market.

That is essentially the reason why they are preparing yet another tax and not for environmental reasons…