Global tax proposed to generate funds for road safety

NEW DELHI: Nations may come together to impose tax on new vehicles, tyres and on imported used cars for creating a global fund for road safety on the lines of the Ebola cess, which was imposed on global airline travel to fight the disease and carry out research.

This was proposed at the recently held global summit on road safety in Brasilia as an innovative way of generating funds to fight the menace of road traffic crashes, which is set to become the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. At present, it is the ninth major cause of death in general and the biggest for the youth in the age group of 15-29 years in particular.

United Nations secretary general's special envoy for road safety Jean Todt has announced the formation of a high-level panel to create the UN fund as a symbolic instrument to tie financing together. There is also a proposal to create this fund in a resolution for the next United Nations General Assembly in spring 2016. Executive secretary of UN Economic Commission for Europe, Chistian Friis Bach has said that the global fund should be in place soon after consultations are held among nations.

Indicating how innovative ways of raising funds by levying little tax on products would work Todt pointed out that annually 18 million cars are sold across the globe and another one billion units of tyres are sold. He also said that the alcohol industry also has a greater responsibility and must contribute to this corpus since it is one of the major contributors to road fatalities. He added how a dollar or two surcharge by the manufacturers would reap millions more for road safety initiatives.

While supporting the proposal to put in place an innovative financing model for road safety World Bank's chief financial officer Bertrand Badre told TOI that the funding for road safety should primarily come from the governments. "But what we must ensure is that the funds collected globally are used carefully. Don't waste the fund at any cost and you need to convince people that the money collected from them in any form of tax is utilized properly. First we need to work out why we need the fund and what to do with it," he said.



The need for a global fund has been mooted considering the fact that middle and low income countries bear about 90% share of the road traffic crash.

On whether all countries will come on board for innovating financing including imposing tax, Badre said the consensus by member nation should not hold back the decision. "With quite a few country on board this exercise can start," he added.