Reader's Opinion | Fuel taxation is the most effective model for taxing motoring

Vesa Helkkulan think that taxing cars per kilometer would be a fair way to obtain additional income for the state (HS Opinion 7.1.). The background for thinking about mileage taxation is the decrease in the state's income from car taxation.

However, Helkkula's thinking model contains several problems. I agree with him that it is justified to pay more for driving in urban areas with good public transport connections than in rural areas.

However, the kilometer tax – contrary to what Heikkula claims – evens out this difference: in the capital region, car journeys are typically significantly shorter than, for example, in Lapland. Thus, a person driving a car in Lapland would pay significantly more tax measured in kilometers than a person driving a car in the capital region.

Fuel taxation is still the most effective model for taxing motoring for many different reasons. In the metropolitan area, crawling in rush hour traffic consumes more fuel than driving in the countryside. Cars that consume a lot have to pay more fuel taxes than cars with low emissions.

Fuel taxation increases the attractiveness of public transport, when it costs to drive your own car. Above all, fuel taxation steers our car fleet in the direction of low emissions. Due to the climate goals, specifically taxing emissions instead of kilometers is a significantly better operating model.

In addition, we already have a working solution for fuel taxation in Finland. There is no need for additional bureaucracy, new equipment, annual odometer checks, GPS tracking or any other technical solution. Part of the revenue from kilometer-based taxation would be lost in building and maintaining the system itself.

When adding new tax models, it should be very critical if the same results can be achieved with current solutions.

Petteri Aijö

Master of Political Science

Helsinki

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