People living in the Netherlands but driving foreign registered cars must be made to pay Dutch road tax, the Christian Democrats said on Tuesday.

Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt has been pursuing the non-payment of road tax for some time, and has now written to junior finance minister Frans Weekers in the hope the matter can be settled before the end of the summer.

The law states that anyone moving to the Netherlands can drive their foreign registered car for two weeks. After that time, it must carry a Dutch registration. However, enforcement is lax and Omtzigt wants Weekers to come up with a plan.

A lot of road tax

According to the MP, some 350,000 foreign workers live in the country but only 31% of them has a Dutch registered car. ‘That is a lot of road tax the government is not receiving,’ he told the Telegraaf.

Weekers earlier said he is irritated by people who use the roads but do not pay the tax, and said he would come up with a way of tackling the problem before the summer.