Green party GroenLinks has called on transport minister Camiel Eurlings to explain rumours that the planned national kilometre tax for motorists cannot be introduced before 2016.

The Telegraaf newspaper quotes a memo from Eurlings for Friday’s cabinet meeting in which he says the system can only be fully operational by 2016 at the earliest.
According to the coalition accord, a first, ‘irreversible step’ towards a kilometre tax must be taken this cabinet period, which ends in 2012.
Sources say Eurlings has drawn up a number of proposals to kick-start the project. These range from imposing a rush hour tax on motorists around the big cities to imposing the kilometre tax on the transport sector only.
Yesterday it emerged that an umbrella group of employers and motoring organisations, plus the transport and environmental lobbies, were drawing up their own recommendations, based on rewarding drivers who avoid busy periods.
Eurlings has promised to finalise his plans before his ministry’s 2008 budget is debated at the end of this month.