Cabinet plans to increase the tax paid by company car drivers have come under fire from members of the ruling VVD party.

VVD MPs say junior finance minister Eric Wiebes is going too far in his plans to scrap the tax break on electric cars and increase the user tax paid by company car drivers.

MPs from the right wing Liberal VVD describe the plan as ‘very left wing’. ‘It is just not on,’ MP Helma Neppérus told BNR radio on Monday.

Electric cars are current free from road tax, but Wiebes plans to scrap that from 2016. He also wants to subject them to a 7% user tax, rather than the 4% at present. Hybrid car users face a 14% user tax.

The Volkskrant reported in March that tax breaks on hybrid and fully electric cars cost the Dutch treasury €500m last year. Last year, 22,000 hybrids and electric cars were sold in the Netherlands, many more than before the tax breaks were introduced.

Lease car drivers can avoid paying tax for their company car – up to 20% of the catalogue value – if they drive fewer than 500 km a year privately. Drivers have to keep a logbook of their car usage.