Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said the tolls could be used to help maintain the country's infrastructure, bolstering Germany's economy by up to €2.5bn over the next four years. 

In response, the VDIK has said the proposed toll is ‘bureaucratic and unfair, and it does not even ensure that the comparatively low revenue will indeed be earmarked and used exclusively to maintain the federal highways and their bridges’.

The organisation says that the plan to initially introduce an infrastructure levy is essentially a road toll for all vehicle owners – on all roads.

In a statement it said: ‘Whether in a second step, it will indeed be possible to ease the financial burden for German motorists by way of an amendment of the Motor Vehicle Tax Act, as provided for in the concept, will ultimately not be up solely to the Federal Finance Minister, but it will also depend to a significant extent on how the European Commission assesses the proposal under European law. There is at least reasonable doubt as to whether the declared goal of ultimately getting only citizens of neighbouring states to bear the costs is a good idea from a European policy perspective.’

Instead the organisation is demanding that politicians finally use a substantial portion of the €50bn plus generated annually in transport-related tax revenue to maintain, repair, upgrade and build new traffic infrastructure in Germany.

It added: ‘Anyone who continues to live off the existing infrastructure, especially in the area of road transport, jeopardizes the performance of the German economy and postpones necessary financial expenditures to future generations!’

VDIK president Volker Lange said: ‘Motorists are right to demand the upkeep of existing roads and the construction of new ones, because they have paid for this with their taxes several times over. Despite the oftentimes rather helpless attempts, the policy makers cannot negate their responsibility. Unfortunately, the Dobrindt proposal, too, only serves as a pretext for the government to once again put its hands into our pockets in order to obscure fact that for over three decades, state revenue from transport-related taxes was not used appropriately. When the truck toll was introduced, we already witnessed how, while the roll revenue was indeed used for the transport infrastructure, the transport infrastructure expenditures from the general budget were cut back at the same time.’

If the tolls are passed, they will be introduced next year.