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-   -   USA: States propose a new road-usage system which makes drivers pay for per-mile driven (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/268370-usa-states-propose-new-road-usage-system-makes-drivers-pay-per-mile-driven.html)

According to a media report, because electric vehicle owners don't pay the gas tax, the state of Washington, USA, is mulling the idea of a new road usage fee for vehicle owners.



As per the new proposal, the state will do away with the gas tax, which currently costs 49.4 cents per gallon, and instead replace it with a pay-per-mile system. This new system will have vehicle owners paying two & half cents per mile driven. As Americans drive 13,500 miles on average, that adds to a total cost of $337 per year. This amount is equivalent to paying gas tax for 343 gallons of petrol in a year. Reports also state that the pay-per-mile system would initially be an option but will become a statewide requirement by 2030.

However, the proposal has been considered a bit unfair, as drivers with fuel-efficient cars will end up paying a higher fee; while owners of fuel guzzlers will pay less.

Source: Jalopnik

Link to Team-BHP news

Makes sense. Someone needs to pay for all the roads and infrastructure they are going to use driving on :)

Might seem unfair for EVs that give more mileage and mostly they also weigh less. But one can say distance is same and tax is similar to the toll that people pay on tollways.

Nope, nope, nope.

And how are they going to calculate it? Through real time tracking. Next what? More charge for taking the car during rush hour? Or for midnight joyrides. One charge for commuting miles, another for leisure miles? The meter starts running the moment you get in the car? Or charge for keeping the vehicle parked as it is a waste of unutilised resources sitting idle.


Weigh less? BEVs? They should be charged more for putting more stress on road surface than comparable sized ICE vehicles. rl:

I meant between EVs that give more mileage and lighter vs bigger EVs. This puts a flat per mile charge for every sized EV.

A brilliant idea for EV's in the US. But can apprehend that after all those new expressways are constructed like Delhi-Mumbai and so on, our Transport Ministry and NHAI will get deeply influenced by the idea of such an unique tax. Bureaucrats don't have the time to read the knitty gritty of the proposal like its for EV's and for Washington State. They will discuss that the US is levying taxes per mile of road usage on all motor vehicles and its a wonderful idea.

They will share this idea with Sh Gadkari who will be very impressed and direct his Ministry to issue a draft notification. This will be finalised as a notification after the 30 days window.

Sh Gadkari will name it as RoadTag. So we will have to affix a RoadTag and the Fastag.

It will then be applicable to all four and four plus wheelers using National Highways.

This would especially help them wring out even more cash from normal people who ride on motorcycles and fuel efficient cars so that our poor ministers can fund their their gas guzzling SUVs / Kia Carnival type vehicles and their police entourages.:Frustrati

Considering our Govt, they will only make this an additional tax while keeping the stratospheric fuel taxes intact in the name of promoting public transport or whatever.

A brilliant idea to extract more money as a tax. This way the Govt. can increase the tax base to EV cars as well.

As good for the people covering low mileage, this step will surely put off the people who wants toe explore the country, and i know there is a big numbers for such high mileage muncher, so more reason to for Govt. to be laugh at the bank.

Guess one day to start your engine you need to have some prepaid toll money in your account which covers everything from road tax to insurance :Frustrati
Gets deducted based on your running !

Maybe you missed this announcement by Shri Gadkari.

Govt to introduce GPS-based toll system in six months to replace toll plazas

The Netherlands will introduce something like this for the whole country and all types of vehicles, trucks, busses etc.

Currently we pay roadtax on all of our vehicles. Roadtax is based on the age of your car, type of fuel, emissions and a few other things. Also, the charges vary per province a bit.

To give a few examples

On our Ford Fiesta the annual road tax is Euro 450.
On my Jaguar the annual road tax is almost Euro 1200

So this is serious money.

By 2030 The Netherlands will have a fully pay as you go per kilometer, rather than a fixed road tax.

They have not decided yet how the system will be implemented. But it will have the capability to differentiate tariff for peak and non peak hours. There are all sort of discussions on how to ensure the tariffs are set fairly. One thought being the average driver doing about 11000 km annually should not see any material difference in cost.

But of course, everybody comes up with a reason his/her particular group should not pay anything or less. Classic cars of 40 years or older are currently exempt from road-tax. We don’t want to start paying again obviously. Also, the most likely technical solution how this will work is with a teacher device installed permanently in all vehicles. Classic car owner don’t appreciate modern stuff being bolted to their cars!

There is a case about people in rural areas claiming they are far more dependent on their car than people living in major cities and towns. I can vouch for that. There are no bus services in our villages. You have to take the car or peddle on your bicycle for quite a bit to get to the first supermarket and or bus/train station.

So it is still a bit of a mystery on how this moves forward. But it also seen as a necessary tool to manage the transition to EV and promote thinking about different modes of travel times and or different transportation modes (eg public transport)

Jeroen

This highlights an interesting conundrum for governments. With EVs, the existing subsidiary can be stopped, and road taxes can be made applicable. But if proportion of EVs goes beyond a particular limit in the market, what happens to tax revenues collected via fuel. In India, this is huge. The current government has minted money out of fuel tax, at a rate no other government has since India's independence.

Governments will come up with new ways to tax. Raise taxes on electricity? Road usage tax in addition to road tax and tolls? What scares me is Governments in India impose brutal tax rates, both direct and indirect. They could care less if an industry survives or if tax payers are able to pay. And many would support governments' right to impose taxes. We very easily forget that an efficient government has to provide maximum service with minimum costs, costs that are covered via tax collected.

Scary times ahead. I fear Government's creative ways to tax individuals will only get worse in the future.

Already a vehicle is considered a Luxury Purchase and taxed accordingly. To buy a 10L ex showroom vehicle, you already pay about upto 3.5L - 4L in direct and indirect taxes to the government, and this does not include the Income Tax you already pay in case you are salaried person like most of us here. Then there is the road tax, MCD charges in Delhi, FasTag etc already for tolls. Forget about fuel and maintenance.

While this may just apply to EV, they won’t hesitate to have one more type of tax on non-EV buyers as well. However, I don’t yet see EVs becoming that mainstream even in next 3 years.

What next, vehicle ownership attracts a penalty in case you don’t drive it C kms every year?
It incurs extra charges if you drive beyond Y kms in a year? If such a rule comes out, vehicle ownership will successfully become a financial headache more so and will be all the more reason to switch to Ubers for daily use.