According to Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson (S), lowering the gasoline tax is not the right way forward to help all those affected by rapidly rising oil prices.
This would lock more people into addiction to gasoline, which is only getting more and more expensive, she warns.
Soaring energy prices this fall – for everything from electricity to gasoline and diesel – hit many households hard. A full tank has become more than SEK 200 more expensive since the start of the year, while the electricity bill for a residential household has been reduced by an additional SEK 500 to 1,000 per month.
In the wake of change, the moderates have, among other things, proposed a reduction in the gasoline tax of one crown per liter. Swedish Democrats have seized and opened negotiations on a joint proposal to reduce the fuel tax.
However, Magdalena Andersson saw the proposal.
“It’s a very short-term way to lock people up more into gasoline addiction,” she says.
According to the Minister of Finance exists the best way to help affected households. She mentions, among other things, the broader tax cut of a total of seven billion for low and middle incomes that is included in the budget proposal for 2022 – which can amount to 200 SEK per month.
She adds that she understands that it is difficult for many households when fuel prices rise.
“A lot of people – including me – sit down with a car that runs on gasoline or diesel. There are various opportunities to support households without pushing to release more, ”she says.
The own car the Minister of Finance refers to is a Peugeot diesel from 2012, which is written on her husband.
Countries around the world must redouble their efforts to stop climate change, she also said ahead of the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Washington this week. The Minister of Finance will attend the meeting in his capacity as Chairman of the IMF, the IMF’s highest advisory body.
Along with a new vaccination target – with a view to a global vaccination rate of 70% by summer 2022 – climate policy is currently the major theme of the IMFC, according to Andersson.
“It is clear that it is possible to do it. But that’s in part because rich countries support poor countries better. The other thing that is needed is also to get the will to vaccinate the world population, she said of the vaccination target. “
The Minister of Finance does not think so the rapid rise in energy prices in the fall should be seen as an obstacle to further climate action – such as the budget proposal to lower the limit on emissions for which new cars are affected by the increase in vehicle tax under the so-called bonus malus system.
“On the other hand, all governments around the world need to be very careful when implementing climate measures, to ensure that low-income households can also be part of the transition,” she said. .
Are the rise in electricity and oil prices making it more difficult to implement climate measures?
“We could also say that it highlights the need to support ordinary households to move from dependence on fossils to something else. That there are alternatives. He stresses the importance of taking such measures. “
“There are areas in Sweden where there is very little public transport and where you depend on the car to be able to get to work and transport the kids to football training. This should be taken into account when designing the policy. “
But the answer is not to “lure the Swedes into a long-term dependence on gasoline and diesel”, according to the finance minister.
“Because here we know one thing, it will only become more and more expensive.”
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