Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Society, Transport

Keila is offering a one-off payout of one hundred euros to each de-facto resident of the town who re-register themselves as a resident of Keila before the end of the year, spokespeople for the Keila town government said.

The mayor of Keila, Enno Fels, said that Tallinn's offering of free public transport has been functioning as a tool of unfair competition already for many years, enticing residents of neighboring municipalities to fictitiously register as residents of Tallinn to be entitled to free rides.

"Since personal income tax makes up a significant portion of a municipality's budget, by its actions Tallinn is stealing from its neighbors' budgets also money meant for local welfare and environmental protection, schools and kindergartens," Fels said.

Also Keila offers free rides in its public transport system, which are free to everyone regardless of where they live. According to Fels, it would be fair and sensible of Tallinn as well to stop discriminating against people based on their registered address.

By a decision of the Keila town government, each individual who registers as a resident of Keila before year-end will be paid 100 euros net, and in addition spa packages to Keila's sister city Sigulda and ten prizes of 300 euros each will be raffled among existing and new residents.

The mayor also said that while he can understand the lure of free public transport, people should register as residents of where they live at least at the turn of the year so that their tax money went to where it belongs to.

"If fact, in the modern e-state it is a matter of just a few mouse clicks," the mayor added.

The town of Keila had a population of 9,862 at the beginning of 2017.