South African companies have until February 28, 2010 to comment on the carbon tax discussion document.
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| The new gas tax means you don't want to emit like this |
Like the Windows tax which saw the British and Scottish kings getting their home owners to pay for the Kings bungles under the "Act of Making Good the Deficiency of the Clipped Money in 1696", the gas tax of South Africa will see us paying for our fat cats latest excesses in bling and budget bungles each time we buy any new vehicle.
To quote paragraph 98 from the "Discussion paper for Public Comment on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions -The Carbon Tax Option", (issued in December 2010): "The net impact of the carbon tax is to reduce the relative competitive position of carbon-intensive sectors and improve the position of sectors with low carbon intensity. One of the desired long-term outcomes of a carbon tax is the contraction of carbon-intensive sectors that are expected to result in a net reduction in emissions."
Simply put, government aims to make it so expensive to emit gas that even belching will become prohibitive, never mind driving a truck.
The cost to company will simply be passed to the consumer, but the tax... well, like the fuel tax, NO ONE will ever be able to discover what government wasted it on.
One thing is sure, and that is that your carbon tax won't end up making our corner of the planet greener, just like the fuel levy does not make our roads better.
And we are not talking small change here. Deloitte and Touche calculates that the South African government stand to make some R82,5-billion a year in additional revenue from carbon tax, (at R165/t of carbon dioxide equivalent, assuming South Africa’s total emissions at 500-million tons a year of Co2e).
Back to fuel tax, for those who wondered what the latest fuel price increase is for, its to pay for Transnet's massive multibillion-rand bungled petroleum pipeline. R00,7,5c of each 25,5c/l in your fuel tax goes towards paying this project's budget, which has ballooned like a svelte Greek lass after marriage.
The only ray of light in all this is that China has decided to leapfrog the whole internal combustion thing and go big for electric vehicles of all sizes, which don't emit gas. Allegations are that a few engineers have already sold the enterprising Chinese years of research from the Nissan/Renault stable, who gave us the Leaf.
While we wait on the Chinese to improve in this and make it the new standard of driving, we only have a few years left to enjoy a lot of smokey, conspicuous consumption with even bigger engines, despite all the taxation efforts to the contrary.
