Taiwan's Legislature Renames 'Automobile Fuel Fee' to 'Road Use, Maintenance, and Safety Management Fee' in Response to EV Trend

(Central News Agency, Taipei, June 9, Reporter Chen Chunhua) The current 'Automobile Fuel Fee' is levied for road maintenance, based on the user-pays principle. However, this name is inconsistent with the growing trend of electric vehicles (EVs). The Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of an amendment to Article 23 of the 'City Road Act' today, changing the 'Automobile Fuel Fee' to the 'Road Use, Maintenance, and Safety Management Fee.'

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien proposed the amendment, stating that the purpose of the current Automobile Fuel Fee is for road maintenance, repair, and safety management. To adapt to the popularization of EVs and adhere to the user-pays principle, there is a need to levy fees related to EVs, necessitating the renaming of the fuel fee.

The Legislative Yuan's third reading of the amendment to Article 23 of the 'City Road Act' changes the source of funding for the construction, improvement, and maintenance of city roads from the current 'Automobile Fuel Fee' to the 'Road Use, Maintenance, and Safety Management Fee.' This fee will be uniformly collected by the highway authority, with its distribution ratio to be determined by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in consultation with the Ministry of the Interior.

During the initial review of the draft by the Legislative Yuan's Internal Administration Committee, legislators raised concerns about whether the amendment would affect the tax system for EVs. Deputy Minister of the Interior Tung Chien-hung stated at the time that regarding road fee collection, EVs are currently exempt from fuel fees. However, after the change to the 'Road Use, Maintenance, and Safety Management Fee,' since EVs also use roads, they would need to bear a proportionate share of the cost under the 'user-pays' principle.

Tung also said that to achieve the national goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, discussions with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will be held on how to determine an appropriate and reasonable cost-sharing ratio. However, the amendment is unrelated to taxation, which requires discussion with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transportation. The amendment is merely a renaming, and the fees will be allocated as a dedicated fund from the central government's统筹分配款 (central government allocation) to local government road maintenance units. (Editor: Pan Yi-ching) 1150609