Germany plans steeper-than-expected tax hike on short flights: official

BERLIN (Reuters) – Berlin plans to increase taxes on short-haul flights by more than 5 euros, an official at the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday, a larger tax hike under Germany’s emissions cutting program than many had expected.

The levy on domestic and intra-European flights would rise to 13.03 euros from 7.50 euros, the official said, while carbon charges on medium-haul flights could rise to 33.01 euros from 23.43 and for long-haul flights to 59.43 from 42.18 euros.

A draft law seen by Reuters showed that the government had planned smaller hikes as recently as earlier this month.

The German government, which consists of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats, agreed that short-haul flights, particularly heavy in CO2 emissions, should be taxed more heavily in proportion to underlying ticket prices than longer flights, the official said.

The finance ministry official said that Germany could expect an additional tax take of around 740 million euros once the new taxes come into force in April. The proceeds will mainly be used to finance tax relief on train tickets.

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