Transport minister rejects VW CEO’s proposal on abolishing diesel tax breaks

The German government has rejected a proposal by VW CEO Matthias Müller to abolish the tax privilege for diesel cars, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. “There are currently no plans by the federal government to change the taxation of diesel cars”, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said. Acting transport minister Christian Schmidt also opposed another remark by Müller on introducing a so-called blue badge for vehicles meant to prevent vehicles with very high emissions from entering inner cities. “It’s quite surprising that the car industry calls for driving bans”, Schmidt said, adding that the scheme amounted to “expropriation of millions of diesel car owners”. The transport ministry argued there already was a “powerful ad-hoc programme” in place to improve air quality and prevent driving bans. However, the environment ministry seconded Müller by saying that diesel cars only merited a tax break if they are more environmentally friendly. “It doesn’t look like that’s the case for now”, a spokeswoman of environment minister Barbara Hendricks said.

Read the article in German here.

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