President Karis joins ranks of car tax critics

President Alar Karis.
President Alar Karis. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR

President Alar Karis described efforts to introduce a car tax in Estonia as confusing and those behind it of being unable to clearly define its purpose.

"The law hasn't even been written yet, while there are already tax calculators out there so people can get all riled up about how much they will be expected to pay," Karis said in an interview to Maaleht.

"Even the people working on the draft legislation do not know how exactly they should go about laying down this tax. Today the reason is the environment, tomorrow it's tax revenue – it sows confusion."

The president told the paper that he would try to understand the idea behind the tax if someone explained it to him, while the myriad signals being sent out today are rather disturbing and beg several questions. For example, Karis would like to know how revenue from the tax will be used and how much people will need to pay.

Coming from the world of science, the president emphasizes in the interview that analysis and facts are needed before something is unveiled. "First having a political idea and only then trying to fit analyses or facts around it is not the way to go about these things."

Harking back to the Riigikogu's spring handling of family benefits and same-sex marriage legislation, Karis said once more that he did not like the fact the bills were tied to a confidence vote in the government to make sure they would be passed. Karis said that he will try to sit down with party leaders before autumn to try and gauge their future plans and how the Riigikogu might move on.

"And if they will carry on as they have, I believe we have a problem," the president said.

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Editor: Marcus Turovski

Source: Maaleht

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