Belgium falls short on green taxes

Belgium has one of the lowest environmental tax burdens in Europe, reports Tax News’ Ulrika Lomas. The figures come from a recent study on the latest developments in the area of environmental taxation conducted by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. Eurostat reported that environmental taxes collected in Belgium amounted to less than 5% of the country’s total taxes and social contributions (TSC). Its figures reveal that in 2010, environmental taxes yielded around €7.3 billion for the Belgian government, of which approximately €4.7 billion was derived from energy taxes levied on petroleum products, for example electricity, natural gas, carbon and carbon dioxide (representing 64% of the total). Some €2.08 billion flowed from transport taxes imposed on motorised vehicles (accounting for 28% of the total), and €0.53 billion was collected from pollution and resource taxes, including levies on mining extraction, water and air pollution, noise and refuse (7% of the total). Eurostat’s report highlights the latest developments of four types of environmental taxes (energy, transport, pollution and resource taxes) in the EU. Only in Bulgaria and the Netherlands did more than 10% of TSC come from environmental taxes. In Germany, Austria, Spain, Iceland, Belgium and France less than 6% of TSC was raised from environmental taxes. The EU-27 average was 6.2 %.