July 13, 1999
According to economic theory, appropriate pricing enables the optimal allocation of scarce resources. With their approval of a distance and weight dependent HGV tax at the end of September 1998, the Swiss people adopted an important measure for road transport pricing policy. This kills three birds with one stone. Firstly it embodies the causality principle and internalises the costs of accidents and environmental pollution, thus tending to reduce them. Secondly it helps to finance ongoing infrastructure construction in Switzerland, above all for the new rail transit lines. Thirdly it exploits the productivity effect of replacing the 28 tonne limit and is thus the most important measure supporting bilateral negotiations between Switzerland and the EU. For the first time, this measure pays for so-called external costs previously covered by public funding.
