The tax for putting a vehicle to the market (imported or locally made) for the first time (not applicable to resales; resales should follow a different criteria) should be based on a formula that takes several factors into consideration (not an exhaustive list).
Price of the vehicle (price from the manufacturer on the released year, adjusted to inflation) : higher price → higher tax %
Cost to put to market (shipping costs, insurance etc) : higher cost → higher tax %
Date of manufacture : older date → higher tax %
Current usage (ex: distance driven, time since first sale, etc.) : more usage → higher tax %
Safety features for passengers, other vehicles and pedestrians (can use existing globally accepted safety ratings) : more safe → lower tax %
Environment impact (projected over expected lifetime) : lower impact → lower tax %
Energy cost to travel per unit distance (ICE, electric, hybrid or any other) (eg: for 10 km distance and 100m elevation at peak efficient speed with maximum load) : less energy cost per unit distance → lower tax %
Capacity (no of people or cargo capacity) : higher capacity → lower tax %
Additional criteria can be introduced based on the requirements of the government and the people. For example, if promoting locally made vehicles is a priority, additional criteria can be introduced to cater that.
The importer should be liable and accountable to provide the correct values for each criteria and these values should be made public.
Additionally, for the purpose of assigning a value for each factor, each factor can be put into a scale.
For example, if we take the “date of manufacture”, it can be put into a point scale as below (example only)
Less than 2 years : 0 points
Between 2 years and 5 years: 1 point
Between 5 years and 10 years: 2 points
Greater than 10 years : 3 points
The final equation can be of following form (example only)
T = Σ ( a.Fb )
T = final tax
F = factor value
a = weight of the factor
b = scaling factor
a, b -> needs to be determined for each criteria by the authorities
Depending on the type of vehicle, (either people transport, cargo or special purpose) different combination criteria/ factors can be used with different weights and scaling factors.
