This week, Switzerland’s government rejected a call to double the price of the motorway vignette, reported RTS. The annual permit, which has cost CHF 40 since 1995, will not rise to CHF 80, as proposed by Martin Candinas, a centrist MP from Graubünden. He had argued that the increase should be coupled with a matching cut in the mineral-oil surtax, easing the burden on Swiss drivers.
Mr Candinas pointed out that a third of vignettes are sold to foreign motorists. By making Switzerland less attractive for leisure transit, he hoped to reduce congestion on Alpine routes such as the Gotthard and San Bernardino tunnel routes. Higher charges on foreigners, he claimed, would bolster federal coffers without punishing locals.
The Federal Council was unconvinced. Any rise, it noted, would fall first on Swiss drivers. Voters had already rejected a jump to CHF 100 in a 2013 referendum. And even if the fuel tax were trimmed, there is no guarantee that private fuel vendors would pass savings on at the pump. The change would merely be lost in the normal volatility of fuel prices.
Something that may have been missed in the debate is that a higher priced vignette would capture revenue from owners of electric cars, who contribute nothing through the fuel tax towards road investment and maintenance. For now, however, the sticker price is set to stay put.
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RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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