I will not write anything on the austerity package as such. To me, it seems all a little arbitrary and highhanded. And in all probability, it will be neither sufficient nor effective. Again, we have one of those unfortunate packages consisting nothing but lame compromises.
Introducing the “traffic fee” as part of the “austerity package”, in particular, seems like a cheat to me.
It starts with the “ecological fee” for flight passengers departing from Germany. The additional 14 Euros per departure (that is what Munich Airport expects, since nobody knows for sure) will basically be another unpleasant addition to the ticket price to Thailand and simply cause some extra bureaucracy.
We already have financial administration. So why don’t they, at long last, introduce the added value tax on kerosene? If necessary, what about an additional “ecological tax”? Why should I pay extra when placing my not-quite-100-kilogram-body on board a plane, but not for 100 kilograms of freight?
Not to mention the forced dividend for the railway. The “Deutsche Bahn AG” is supposed to pay a total of 500 million Euros every year to the state. Of course, this will either limit its future capacity for investment, or else its capacity for reducing debt. But how does our government know the “Bahn AG” will make anything like a regular profit during the next few years? And would it not make sense to invest in the railway in the present situation?
Both, the air-traffic fee and the forced railway dividend are a significant part of the austerity package. Except that they do not really have anything to do with saving money …
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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