Introduction of road tax to be kept on course

The tax should make Swiss alpine passes unattractive for heavy goods transport Keystone

Environmental organisations and railway unions have called on the government to uphold its promise to raise the tax on heavy goods trucks in 2008.

They issued the appeal on Tuesday to counter an anti-road tax campaign launched recently by the Swiss road hauliers association.

The road pricing system for heavy vehicles came into effect on January 1, 2001. All Swiss and foreign vehicles weighing at least 3.5 tons must pay the tax to use the road networks in Switzerland and neighbouring Liechtenstein.

The road tax is a key element of Switzerland’s transport policy aimed at reducing heavy vehicle crossings of the Alps to 650,000 by 2009. In 2003, there were over one million such transits, which was a drop of eight per cent compared with 2000.

In 2004, the charge levied on a 40-ton truck crossing the Swiss Alps was SFr215 ($177). That went up to SFr307 a year later, and if the government does not renege on its plan, will rise to SFr325 in 2008.

But road hauliers argue that the tax has not had the desired effect, nor will it have when the rate is increased in two years’ time.

They launched a petition in April calling for the new rate to be levied only on foreign trucks transiting Switzerland. The truckers’ association said the big losers are Swiss consumers who have had to foot the bill of rising transport costs.

Despite the truckers’ campaign, the government said last Friday it intended to keep to its schedule and raise the rate in 2008.

Finance tunnels

The coalition of associations in favour of the tax reiterated on Tuesday that Switzerland would have a tough time financing the building of its new transalpine railway tunnels without the tax.

Road tax revenues currently amount to around SFr1.2 billion annually, and are expected to go up to SFr1.33 billion as of 2008.

The European Union agreed to allow Switzerland to include the road tax in a bilateral agreement on transport, in exchange for the Swiss allowing heavier trucks (from 34 to 40 ton) to transit the country.

This last point, according to the Alpine Initiative, the Swiss Transport and Environment Association and Railway and Transport Employees Union, has been an incentive for road hauliers and therefore the higher tax is necessary.

swissinfo with agencies

In brief

The people’s initiative “for the protection of the alpine regions from transit traffic” was handed in in 1990 with 107,570 signatures.

The Alpine Initiative calls for freight to be transferred from road to rail as well as a stop to new roads being built in the Alps.

The initiative was accepted by 51.9% of voters. It has subsequently been enshrined in the Swiss constitution.