“Green” tax – just an excuse?

I have no idea what the government is thinking with the proposed “green” tax on new car sales.

Personally I don’t think that it makes sense.

It looks like the government is just trying to appease a few activists with this tax.   Or, and probably closer to the truth, adding just another tax for the few to support the many.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Why tax new vehicles? If you do a bit of research you’ll quickly see that even big cars like the Hummer puts out a lot less toxic fumes than the average old car on South Africa roads.  Start looking at the taxis and trucks that are out on our road, average age is probably 5years or older.  And the maintenance on these is just enough to keep them running, most definitely not to minimise the output of harmful gases.

In my mind it would be much better for the environment to put a “green” tax on older cars that are spewing out far larger amounts of carbon than new cars.  This is the actual target of these “green” taxes, isn’t it?

But once again, our government is scared of offending the, proven violent, taxi industry.  Far easier to tax new cars, these people want the cars no matter what, and they will pay the price.  Yet another reason not to buy a new car then.