In Japan, road tax calculation takes into consideration of vehicle weight, size and emission. In most developed countries, road tax calculation were mostly calculated base on emission from vehicles.Now although higher capacity engines would generally have higher emission levels compared to small engines, recent developments in engine technology had far surpassed the traditional barriers of high capacity engine emissions. Take for example a case of a 1986 Proton Saga, with a carburetor engine, versus the new Honda Accord 3.5 ltr V6, where most of the time it is able to shut off 3 cylinder banks and practically running on a highly efficient 1.75 liter of displacement with three cylinders, the Honda Accord would have been far more friendlier to the environment than the humble Proton Saga. So, should the Saga pay higher road tax? Or higher road tax should still be imposed on buyers of large displacement vehicles, merely because they have more cash balance in banks?
In fact, plenty of Malaysians can afford driving a 3.5 ltr car, petrol costs are actually within reach of most Malaysian's income parity, however, its the road tax that kills, where beyond every threshold, the incremental charge per 100cc of displacement is just ridiculous. Take for example countless 2.0ltr cars driving around everyday in our streets, raking up millions of kilometers everyday, contributing to congestion and emitting millions of tons into the atmosphere, they only pay RM365 a year for road tax, however compare that to the rare case of a 4.3 ltr V8 car, the owner of the rarely driven supercar would have to pay RM7000 in road tax annually!
In fact this situation is so dire, where a RM900,000 BMW 750i from year 1999, can only fetch RM50k in second hand market, whereas a BMW 728, could fetch a price three times higher, around the regions of RM150,000. Is it fair? I mean, can poor people, just because they're poor (or we are), then it means we could recklessly drive around to mini markets where walking would only take us 2 minutes? Have you all notice how many traffic zig zaggers out there, parking violators, accident causers were all mostly made up of these so called humble cars?
In most cases, I would think it be best for the government to streamline our useless public transport system, locate strategic mass transit system hubs in shopping malls, controlling the flow of consumers/commuters. Then when that is done, slap up a pay per mile road tax calculation, meaning it no longer is a case of you pay more if you had a bigger engine, but you pay more if you rack up more kilometers, emit more carbon dioxide, and your car weighs more. This way, Proton could manufacture vehicles with larger engines, higher profit margin, and will be able to tap markets in overseas market (i.e. Australia) where their consumers regards cars with 2.5ltr or 3.0ltr as 'small' engines. This would help our local manufacturers to venture beyond their current low profit margin small vehicle manufacturing. It's logic right? If you are a low volume manufacturer enjoying lower economies of scale, why produce low margin stuffs?
And motorcycles, shouldn't they pay road tax and tolls as well? What makes them having such luxury of not needing to pay to travel? Where at the first place they have the luxury of need not being stuck in the jam and winning every argument when there's an accident involved?
