Just days before Italy's general elections, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that garbage taxes could also be abolished, local media reported Friday.

Speaking in a radio interview, Berlusconi said that the use of plants which converted refuse into fuel meant that the taxes could be done away with.

He did not go into details or say exactly when he thought the garbage taxes, which are levied by local councils, could go.

Last year, revenue from refuse taxes amounted to 3 billion euros while costs for rubbish management services amount to almost 6 billion euros per year.

A few days earlier, Berlusconi made an unexpected promise to abolish council property taxes, known as ICI, on voters' first homes.

Top Italian environmental group Legambiente protested that abolishing garbage taxes would be a gift to the Mafia and other criminal organizations, which make huge gains from illegal waste disposal activities, the report said.

Source: Xinhua