Today, the Minister of the Environment Mr Villu Reiljan and the Assistant Minister Mr Olavi Tammemäe presented the idea of an ecological tax reform. Mr Valdur Lahtvee, the Director of the Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development as a representative of non-governmental organisations and Mr Aadu Kana, the Senior Adviser of Kunda Nordic Cement Corporation as a representative of the business sector supported the positions of the Ministry. The core idea of the ecological tax reform is to direct the society towards ecologically compatible development by means of a tax reform. This is achieved by implementing a diverse package of measures, the most important of which is shifting the tax burden away from labour force and starting to tax the utilisation and contamination of natural resources. Through this reform the wallets of consumers and manufacturers are influenced in such a way that it is more profitable to act in an environmentally friendly way. This presupposes that environmentally friendly products have competitive prices. In addition, this means that substantially more attention is paid to the development and introduction of new technologies that require smaller amounts of natural resources and are less contaminating. The ecological tax reform gives a new impetus to economic restructuring: top technologies, energy-conserving technologies, etc. are likely to get a development boost. Several Member States of the European Union started to launch ecological tax reforms already years ago with the aim of solving three problems at once: (1) increasing the competitiveness of their economy by creating a favourable environment for technological innovation; (2) creating new jobs by decreasing the level of labour taxation; (3) motivating environmentally friendly production, consumption and behaviour. The Ministry of the Environment wishes to involve experts of social, economic and environmental spheres, non-governmental organisations and the general public in the development of the concept of the reform from the very beginning. Mr Olavi Tammemäe, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of the Environment has stressed: “The success of the reform is based on the understanding and involvement of the whole society, including politicians, civil servants, the business sector and non-governmental organisations”. According to the Minister Villu Reiljan, now is a perfect time to also start thinking ecologically in terms of the taxation system. Mr Reiljan said: “We have achieved our strategic goals, as Estonia is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union; it is now time to focus on how we could maintain our success in tough competitive conditions. We need a change in paradigm in order to ensure the viability of Estonian patriotism so that future generations would also have a good life.” To sum up, the ecological tax reform is beneficial to everyone: we will all get a cleaner and healthier environment, more pleasure from nature and increased welfare; the business sector will benefit from the lower cost of labour and will be motivated to introduce technological innovations; the state will benefit from a guaranteed tax yield that helps to solve environmental, social and economic problems. According to the coalition agreement, the concept ecological tax reform – that is, how to introduce the reform in Estonia – should be clear by 2007. Further information: Monika Kopti |
