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Italy Hikes Fuel Tax to Fund Clean Bus Buy

18 February 2005

Bloomberg. The Italian government increased the tax per liter of gasoline by half a cent and per liter of diesel by one cent to help fund the purchase of new, less-polluting buses.

The tax hike will generate more than 350 million euros ($456 million) annually, according to Italian Environment Minister Altero Matteoli. The resulting revenue will flow into a fund set up to pay for cleaner buses.

“We’re almost certain that this tax will be absorbed without extra costs for the consumer,” Matteoli said. “We’ll aim to substitute [out] highly polluting public vehicles.”

This latest measure follows on the introduction of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 Feb binding Italy and other affected signatory countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Major Italian cities have also recently periodically closed their centers to traffic to attempt to bring PM emissions into compliance with EU directives that went into effect 1 January. (Earlier post.)

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