2023-10-20 10:50:34
On Friday, the Bundestag passed a law from Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) on the new truck toll. From December 1st, the tax for road transport will be expanded to include a CO2 component – trucks with higher CO2 emissions will then have to pay more. It is also planned to expand the toll requirement for vehicles with a permissible total mass of 3.5 to 7.5 tons from July 1, 2024. Craftsmen’s vehicles under 7.5 tons are excluded.
The income for the federal government this year is expected to be almost eight billion euros. The law was approved with the votes of the traffic light coalitions. The CDU, CSU and AfD voted against it, the Left abstained.
Advance conversion
The government hopes that the CO2 surcharge will enable a switch to more climate-friendly drives. From 2024 to 2027, additional revenue of 30.5 billion euros is expected. The use of funds should also be reorganized. Half of the toll revenue should continue to be earmarked for improvements to federal highways – the rest predominantly in “measures in the area of federal railways”. The truck toll has been collected on motorways since 2005 and was then gradually expanded to all federal highways.
A comment from Corinna Budras, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 109 Corinna Budras, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 80 A comment from Corinna Budras, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 13
The law also continues the implementation of the failed car toll by repealing the law introducing the car toll from 2015, which was never applied. Continuation of the law would contradict the principle that only legal norms that apply are in force, according to the justification. The car toll – a prestige project of the CSU in the then federal government – was stopped as illegal by the European Court of Justice in 2019.
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