In Estonia, the Ministry of the Environment’s proposed surge in environmental taxes, including the tax on the extraction of mineral resources, would increase the cost of the high-speed railway Rail Baltica significantly.
According to a survey commissioned by the Ministry of the Economic Affairs, the 10% hike in the cost of the track ballast for building the trackbed for 211km of rail tracks for Rail Baltica would significantly increase the building cost of the link.
The Ministry of the Environment is proposing to raise the tax for construction-grade mineral resources by the yearly 4% through 2020.
The Ministry estimates the tax on excavating non-energy minerals to reach €9.1 million in 2016, up by €310,000 from 2015.
It is also claimed that the tax on the extraction of mineral resources will halve the budgetary outlays on road maintenance (€30 million) unless the outlays are raised by €16 million by 2020.
The Ministry of the Environment's national development strategy estimates road building to consume 70%-80% of construction-grade minerals.
