Federal Act
on the Protection of the Environment
(Environmental Protection Act, EPA)

¹ Any per­son who im­ports, or in Switzer­land pro­duces or ex­tracts pet­rol or dies­el with a sul­phur con­tent of more than 0.001 per cent (% by mass) pays the Con­fed­er­a­tion an in­cent­ive tax.

² Pet­rol and dies­el with a sul­phur con­tent of more than 0.001 per­cent (% by mass) are ex­emp­ted from the tax if they are in trans­it or be­ing ex­por­ted.

³ The tax amounts to a max­im­um of 5 centimes per litre plus a sur­charge to take ac­count of in­fla­tion from the date on which this pro­vi­sion comes in­to force.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may fix rates of tax that are dif­fer­ent for pet­rol and dies­el.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets the rate of the tax with ref­er­ence to the air qual­ity ob­ject­ives, tak­ing spe­cial ac­count of:

a.

the pol­lu­tion caused to the en­vir­on­ment by air con­tam­in­ants;

b.

the re­quire­ments of cli­mate pro­tec­tion;

c.

the ex­tra cost of man­u­fac­tur­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing pet­rol and dies­el with a sul­phur con­tent of 0.001 per cent (% by mass);

d.

the re­quire­ments of the na­tion­al eco­nom­ic sup­ply.

⁶ The rev­en­ue from the tax, in­clud­ing in­terest and un­der de­duc­tion of im­ple­ment­a­tion costs, is shared equally among the pop­u­la­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the dis­tri­bu­tion pro­ced­ure. It may in­struct the can­tons, pub­lic cor­por­a­tions or private in­di­vidu­als to make the dis­tri­bu­tion.