Majority in Parliament want to remove tax on biofuel

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More than 120 members of Finland's 200-member Parliament have signed a legislative proposal to remove taxes on biological fuel.
      The initiative by National Coalition Party MP Pertti Hemmilä gained support within all Parliamentary party groups. If the changes are implemented, the price of ethanol, when used as a substitute for petrol, would go down EUR 0.70 per litre, and the price of biodiesel, which replaces traditional diesel fuel, would go down by more than EUR 0.40 a litre.
     
Hemmilä points out in his initiative that under goals set by the European Union, biofuels were supposed to comprise two percent of fuels used in transport by the end of last year, and that by 2010 this should rise to 5.75 percent. Currently, only 0.1 percent of fuel used in transport in Finland is of biological origin.
      According to Hemmilä, taxation would be one of most easily removable impediments to the increase in the use of biological fuels.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland lags behind other EU countries in developing bio-fuel for transport (3.10.2005)
  Eco-cars still a fairly rare sight on Finnish roads (14.6.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat