Belgian BBQ Tax: April Fools Day Joke

Like Arthur suggested to me and as I said in the post about Wonkette, no one else picked up on this story except for this sketchy Russian outfit RIA Novosti, suggesting that it was an April Fools Day joke that erroneously got picked up by them without bothering to get confirmation.

The government of the region in question says it's not true.

The government of Wallonia has refuted allegations of plans to introduce a tax on barbequing in this Belgian French-speaking region.

Reports appeared in local media earlier in the month that a law had been approved to charge residents of the 4-million-strong region 20 euros for each grilling session beginning in June.

"We have repeatedly denied this information, which is nothing but an April Fool's Day joke. But we never imagined it would create such a fuss," said the press secretary of Wallonia's minister for agricultural, rural affairs, the environment and tourism.

The media had said the new law was needed as an environmental measure and cited experts as saying that between 50 and 100 grams of CO2, a so-called greenhouse gas, was emitted during barbequing. Scientists believe CO2 emissions are a major cause of global warming.

So, not true. Thanks to DaveS for that.

posted by Ace at 01:11 PM

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