KDH Proposes to Reward Employees for Cycling to Work

Bratislava, September 21 (TASR) - The opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) are proposing to reward employees for commuting to work by bicycle, KDH spokeswoman Lenka Kovar said, adding that to this end, they are preparing legislation aimed at motivating people to cycle to work. Through this measure, they also want to combat the number of cars on the roads and traffic jams, while promoting ecological solutions. They also want to appeal to the Transport Ministry to build more cycle paths. The Christian Democrats pointed out that it's common abroad to encourage cycling to work through various benefits. They referred to the findings of the Parliamentary Institute, which prepared an analysis supporting cycling to work. "Abroad, in countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and others, it's common to encourage cycling to work through various benefits. For example, through tax reliefs, tax deductions for employees, the possibility of deducting company bicycles, employer's contribution to employees commuting to work by bicycle or lump-sum allowances, or various forms of support and subsidies for the purchase of bicycles, etc. This is what we want to achieve with a bill that won't only be beneficial for employees, but won't harm employers either," said KDH MP Igor Janckulik, pointing out that in France and Italy they also support cycling by reimbursing the number of kilometres. "In France it is €0.25 per kilometre, Italy doesn't have a national strategy for reimbursement of kilometres, but good practice is introduced by individual local authorities, where reimbursement starts at €0.15 per kilometre," added Janckulik. The Transport Ministry registers an increased interest of local authorities in the construction of cycle paths. "We want to encourage towns and municipalities to build cycle paths that will be connected to public passenger transport stops. This will improve commuting to work and school," said ministry's spokeswoman Petra Polacikova. The spokesperson added that the ministry has funding available from the recovery plan to support cycling. The Transport Ministry has so far launched two calls for tenders worth a total of €60.4 million and plans to launch a third one. Polacikova said that the ministry supported from the first call 25 projects worth €30 million, and is currently evaluating the second call. am/mcs/mf