Why The Netherlands needs a mileage tax!

The national government in The Netherlands doubts of introducing a mileage tax. The introduction of such as tax is political sensitive and therefore the possible introduction of this tax is already going on for more than a decade. Sensitive because people who use their car more than average will pay more than they do nowadays, at the other hand this tax will make it possible to pay for the milesyou ‘use'. If you drive more, you pay more; if you pollute more, you pay more;if you want to drive during rush hour, you pay more, so if politicians have along term vision they say YES towards mileage tax.

Congestionis increasing and increasing, which has a negative effect on accessibility of mostly urban centres. Congestion is caused because the intensity is higher than the road capacity, set in a intensity/congestion-rate. To decrease congestion it is possible to increase the road capacity or to decrease the intensity. The last decades the density of high ways was getting bigger and bigger and so did its capacity, unfortunately it does not seem to work.

The negative side of increasing capacity though, is that increasing road capacity is relatively expensive and is only used during rush hours, the rest of the day extra capacity is not used. Therefore it is useful to decrease its intensity and that is perfectly possible with a mileage tax. Other taxes such as an increasing fuel price or toll roads are not an option in The Netherlands.

Increasing fuel prices are a perfect solution for the use of a car, though it is neither possible to manage its price completely nor the location where the car is used nor the time when it is used. In the situation nowadays, with a normal tax price, it is already a known phenomenon that people drive to other countries,such as Belgium and Germany, to buy their gas there.

Because the Dutch road network has a lot of intersections and trips are often short, it is impossible to built a toll road network as they have in less densely populated areas in countries as France. High ways are often also a link in the regional or even local road network. Even though toll roads are a good possibility to reject its usage during rush hours, it does neither work for its time of usenor the environmental friendliness of a vehicle.

Neither toll roads, nor more fuel tax are a solution for ‘pay what you get'. Toll road users will have to pay a lot more than their actual use, since those prices have to balance the loss on the non charged roads. Fuel tax is not a solution because visitors often do not pay this. The Netherlands is too small to force visitors to buy their gas in The Netherlands, it is easily possible to visit The Netherlands for a few days without having to refill your tank.

Besides the existing fuel tax, The Netherlands also has a tax for the ownership of a car.This ownership tax, as well as the fuel tax, will disappear when the mileage tax will be set. Other countries in the European Union do not have this tax and to support free trade in its territory it is necessary to equal the majority of taxes. This tax is also used these days to encourage people to buy environmental friendlier cars but the problem is that it is definitely not supported to buy a new car. Since newer cars are mostly environmental friendlier, the disappearing of this tax will thereby support the environmental part of the objectives.

With a mileage tax usage of the road network is paid per mile and depending of time and vehicle you pay more or less. Obtaining the three goals is hardly possible with any other tax. Mileage tax encourage people to drive less, in a cleaner car and outside rush hours.