Palma.The Balearic government is considering varying the ·environmental tax it is imposing on rent-a-car companies by splitting the rates into low and high season tariffs, Partido Popular (PP) minister and government spokesman Rafael Bosch said yesterday.
The car hire businesses themselves have put forward the proposal in an attempt to avoid what they see as a crippling tax, and a threat, not just to their own success, but the tourist industry as a whole in the Balearics.
Moving house
The proposal by the car hire companies is part of ongoing negotiations between businesses and government over the imposition of the tax which they claim will discourage visitors from coming to the Islands.
The rent-a-car firms are so concerned by how the levy will affect their industry that even now they are threatening to pack up their head offices in the Balearics and set up shop on the mainland.
Bosch confirmed that two separate sets of taxes may be established, one to be paid in the high season when the car hire firms are making the most money of the year, and another in the low season when business is thin.
The spokesman said he was very well aware of the resistance there was from car hire companies to the new tax and reiterated that the government took no pleasure in imposing it but was firm in its resolve to proceed.
He said that the government isn't imposing the tax because it wants to make the books balance but because money is needed to maintain public services.
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