Skip to main content

Switzerland increases fuel tax to create road maintenance fund

The Swiss government has created a fund for street and urban transport works to help ease what it says will be a deficit of around €1.26 billion each year up to by 2030. The fund will be created from a rise in road fuel tax from €0.27 to €0.33. Added money will come from a tax on electric vehicles due to start in 2020 and which will raise around €84 million a year, rising to around €275 million. The road maintenance fund also will receive around €366 million from taxes on imported cars and €320 mil
September 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The Swiss government has created a fund for street and urban transport works to help ease what it says will be a deficit of around €1.26 billion each year up to by 2030.

The fund will be created from a rise in road fuel tax from €0.27 to €0.33.

Added money will come from a tax on electric vehicles due to start in 2020 and which will raise around €84 million a year, rising to around €275 million.

The road maintenance fund also will receive around €366 million from taxes on imported cars and €320 million from highway tolls.

Transport Minister Doris Leuthard set the stage for a tax hike when she announced the plans in February last year. She said at the time that traffic on Swiss roads has doubled since 1990 meaning Switzerland’s roads were wearing out that much faster.

At the time, the two transport associations TCS and ACS as well as the Swiss Road Transport Federation (ASTAG) welcomed Leuthard’s creation of the road fund but rejected the tax hike, according to a report by the Swiss English language newspaper The Local.

In a referendum in November 2013 the Swiss rejected government plans to increase the cost of a motorway tax disc to 100 francs from the current 40 as part of plans to pay for more road works.

Related Content

  • Tackling the UK's traffic congestion
    February 28, 2012
    The biggest problem on UK roads is congestion, and there is no shortage of ideas as to how it should be tackled. Patrick Smith reports. Congestion (and how to relieve it), along with safety, are among the top priorities facing those responsible for looking after the UK's roads. Road pricing, car-share lanes, greener vehicle initiatives and alternative methods of transport such as buses, trams and rail are all part of the approach, but prior to the current economic climate the nation's love affair with the c
  • Make the case for electronic tolling, ASECAP conference delegates heard
    September 14, 2015
    Mobility pricing and electronic tolling is the future, delegates to a recent ASECAP Study Days conference, reports Geoff Hadwick at the Lisbon event. The international road tolling industry is failing to make its case and the sector is losing out to other social and political lobby groups. As a result, “tolling is still on the sidelines”, according to the head of the Washington-based International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. IBTTA chief executive Pat Jones issued his stark warning at the
  • RADOR highlights claimed shortfall in North West Russia road funds
    February 13, 2013
    The RADOR association, the leading organisation for advocating, planning, financing, building and maintaining roads in Russia’s regions, estimates the country’s North-Western Federal District needs US$5.367 billion (RUB 161.8bn) for road network repair and maintenance every year. RADOR says that around 19.7% of required funding was provided for regional road maintenance in 2012, along with 41.4% of funding for road repairs, and 6.3% of funding for road overhaul. The Leningrad region received 25% (RUB 5.1bn)
  • Russian road tax plan
    March 5, 2012
    The Russian Government looks set to draft new laws covering funding of the road network.