"Help The Planet, Save Money & Brag About It"

Has anybody seen the latest air tax that has been introduced here in the UK? The idea behind it is to encourage people to take the cleaner route, and those that do fly are being forced to pay a premium on top of their existing ticket price and associated taxes.

Personally I applaud the government for making an effort, though unfortunately this looks like little other than a way to generate revenue. Instead, perhaps they should be rewarding people for using alternative, cleaner methods of travel rather than punishing those that choose to fly. I know something must be done to cut down on emissions, but until viable transport is available worldwide, some people have no option but to fly.

Any thoughts on this?

I think that most govt. answers to problems are to tax the people. Here in the US, the cigarette tax is insane, but people still smoke, I don’t see this as persuading people to do anything different. It just kind of makes everyone mad.

yea, unless that tax is directly contributing to some sort of clean fuel or clean energy project its basically pointless and is just lining the pockets of the government.

If the monies are going towads a clean energy project then this is essentially the same as Carbon Offsets .

Good point Adam, and that is the main reason I object to the way this tax has been implemented. It wouldn’t be so bad if the money were to be pumped back into researching ways to cut down emissions or constructing renewable energy sources, but I’ve got a feeling it will end up in the black hole that is this country’s treasury.

Personally I think almost all of the “green taxes” being imposed on us are a totally cynical revenue generator.There more chance of the extra funds raised being used to help the environmentnthan there is of Hell freezing over.
Modern day governments delight in attempting to appear “green” but this is pure lip service, since generally speaking most of the major economies are in such a dire strait that they cant turn up the chance of extra funding from such a viable source :cry:

You said it, lip service is all it is. The governments of the West are too deep in debt to actually do with the taxes what they say they will do. Each year the manifestos include environment stuff and tax cuts, yet it never happens.

I would say that is a fatalistic approach as it would be unfair to poor holidaymakers and fail to make planes more efficient. The idea is to generate revenue and not to protect environment.

I totally agree that all this “extra” taxing is just a way to gobble up more money from the consumer.  Has anyone heard what they have done with these extra taxes?

With the number of people flying everyday there has to be billions of dollars in the “green” tax being taken in by the airlines.  Are they submitting it to the government?  Are they using it for building cleaner systems for airplanes so that we will see a reduction in this tax when all the planes are “greener”? 

I for one do not think this tax will ever go away and there are only so many things that they can do to make the planes “greener”.

It’s a money guzzling proposition but my question is who is the real beneficiary here?

Most likely it is the governments that are truly benefiting from it. I doubt if any of the money from extra “tax” will ever go to improving the airlines. Most likely it is just another way to tax consumers in the name of helping the environment.

I do agree that even taxing those who smoke hasn’t made a big difference. I know plenty of smokers who just grumble about paying more but then continue to light up.

I agree that the government keeps raising the taxes and we see nothing for the additional money.  They tell us that the lottery money goes toward the schools in this area but the schools are still in need of help for additional books and resources.  They schools need to have fundraisers for the bands, and what not, I don’t understand where is this money going.  It will be the same for the “green environment tax.”

This new air tax is really going to cause a decline in the amount of people that travel in the UK.  The prices were already high, and now I am considering other places to take my annual vacation.  I wonder why they tried to increase the air tax when people are already struggling in this economy.

It’s all about the money.They think the can get people to quit by raising the prices sky high when in reality people will still buy them and will do without other things like good food or extra stuff like a dvd or what have you.

its sad to pay tax on things that are supposedly free