Federal Council examines new method for refunding the CO2 tax
Published: Monday, Mar 11th 2024, 19:20
العودة إلى البث المباشر
In future, the reimbursement of the CO2 tax in Switzerland may no longer take the form of a credit note on the health insurance bill. The Federal Council will examine a system change - with the aim of making this reimbursement more visible.
On Monday, the National Council referred a postulate with this demand to the Federal Council. It originates from its Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (Urek-N). The national government was also in favor of referral.
Urek-N had argued in advance that the current system of credit notes on health insurance premiums was not understood by a large proportion of the population. Or the credit is not even recognized. As a result, acceptance of incentive taxes is low.
Urek-N envisages that the revenue from the levy will now be paid out to all private households at least once a year.
The Federal Council wrote to the National Council that the transparency gain would have to be compared with the additional implementation costs during the review. Thanks to the use of existing structures, the redistribution practiced today costs 20 centimes per person.
Only a few know about credit
A survey conducted by a Bern-based research team in 2021/22 revealed that only twelve percent of Swiss people were aware of the current reimbursement mechanism. 15 percent were aware of the credit note on their health insurance bill.
It is true that support for the current CO2 tax policy increased slightly after the researchers framed the credited amount on the health insurance bill in red for the study participants. But even a small tax increase was not more strongly supported than before.
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