STINNES, SCHENKER PARENT, CRITICIZES GERMAN TAXES ON TRUCKING

STINNES, SCHENKER PARENT, CRITICIZES GERMAN TAXES ON TRUCKING    Wulf H. Bernotat, chairman of Stinnes AG, the German parent company of Schenker, has criticized the German government’s tax plans to introduce a toll for trucks depending on distance.
   The German initiative “would distort competition,” Bernotat said.
   “Fortunately, these plans have not yet had any direct major impact on us as a logistics service provider because we operate only 15 percent trucks of our own,” he said. “Indirectly, however, we will of course be obliged to pass on the higher cost of transportation or make greater use of carriers from neighboring countries.”
   Stinnes estimates that the additional cost of all stages of the German eco-tax amounts to an average of euro 7,000 ($6,000) per truck and per year.
   German carriers will face a further escalation of costs if the flat-rate truck toll is introduced in 2003 without a tax relief, the company said.
   “If the German government implements its plans, it will jeopardize jobs in Germany’s transportation and forwarding industry,” Bernotat warned.