ROME — In a dramatic escalation of its pledge to abolish the car tax, the Italian government announced Tuesday that it has begun physically removing every engine under 80 kilowatts from vehicles across the country, leaving millions of car and motorcycle owners with tax-exempt but entirely immobile chassis.
The operation, which officials are calling 'the structural phase,' involves teams of mechanics dispatched by the Ministry of Transport to disassemble small and medium-powered vehicles in driveways, parking lots and motorway lay-bys. Owners are being handed a receipt confirming that their tax obligation has been permanently cancelled, along with a voucher for a single bus ticket.
«We promised to eliminate one of the most hated taxes, and we have eliminated it at the source,» Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference, standing beside a pile of confiscated engines. «From today, no Italian will ever again pay a tax on an engine they no longer possess. This is what structural means.»
Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti confirmed that the measure will be extended in the budget law to include bicycles, which will have their pedals removed to prevent any future temptation to tax them. «We are evaluating whether to also extract the batteries from electric vehicles,» he added. «It is a complex operation, but we are a serious government.»
The Automobile Club of Italy praised the move as «epochal,» noting that drivers will now save between 129 and 206 euros per year, which they can spend on a sturdy pair of shoes. By evening, motorways across the peninsula had filled with Italians walking purposefully toward their destinations, engines under their arms, tax-free and unburdened.