MOTOR carriers united in the Slovak Union of Motor Carriers (UNAS) are calling for a change in the draft bill on a road tax proposing more generous discounts for green vehicles, as well as to reduce the tax to the level valid in the Czech Republic. Otherwise, they are afraid that most carriers will leave Slovakia by the end of the year. The draft revision has advanced to the second reading in the Slovak Parliament and legislators are expected to discuss it during the session starting on October 14, the TASR newswire reported.
The current draft bill prepared by the Finance Ministry says that during the first one to three years of the usage of a vehicle, the discount will be 25 percent, and in the next four to six years, it will be 20 percent, while in the period of seven to nine years it will be 15 percent. UNAS proposes the discounts at 48, 42 and 25 percent depending on the age of the car. They also propose to burden vehicles produced before 1989 with an increased road tax, while the current draft proposes an increase of 10 and 20 percent for 13-year and older vehicles.
UNAS also calls to exempt trailers up to 10,000 kilos from the road tax. It believes that in this way carriers would be forced to use smaller vehicles and do less damage to Slovak roads.
