Italy’s auto industry association, Anfia, called on the country’s government to reduce the tax burden on motorists to boost flagging car sales.

Italians paid 72.7 billion euros ($95.5 billion) in taxes to use, buy and own a car in 2012, 3.8 percent more than in 2011, Anfia said. The taxes contributed 17 percent of Italy’s total national tax income of 426.6 billion euros.

Like governments elsewhere in Europe, Italian leaders have increased car and housing taxes in an austerity drive to balance the budget and avoid paying spiralling costs on government borrowing.

Italy’s car market cannot recover until taxation eases, Anfia said. “The first step towards re-launching demand for new cars in our country is to contain the costs of owning and using a vehicle,” Anfia chairman Roberto Vavassori said on Wednesday.

The bulk of the 72.7 billion euros came from taxes on fuel, which generated a 6 percent rise in tax revenue even though fuel consumption fell by 16 percent as Italians cut back on car trips for the fourth year in 2012.

The figures highlight the difficulties facing European automakers, such as Fiat, as they struggle to entice consumers to buy new cars.

European car sales slumped to their lowest six-months total in 20 years in the first half of 2013, with a 6.3 percent drop in June suggesting no let up for an industry battered by overcapacity and weak demand.

In Italy, Europe’s fourth-largest car market, June sales fell 5.5 percent.

The Centro Studi Promotor research group said on the basis of first-half results Italian sales for the year will be around 1.26 million vehicles — a level not seen since the 1970s and a 50 percent fall on precrisis 2007 levels.