Empty tank

2:58pm Thursday 1st November 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

THE Government’s efforts to encourage clean air by reducing or not charging road tax for vehicles with low pollution exhaust emissions has backfired.

Road tax receipts have fallen since the number of post 2001, cleaner exhaust vehicles have increased. Not withstanding the extra VAT due to the additional, cost of catalytic converters and exhaust systems which have been fitted for many years.

Even though the majority of the road tax is used for anything but road maintenance, the Government think tanks are trying to find additional ways of extracting extra tax from motorists, including paying more to use motorways.

Such schemes are usually very costly to implement. At the same time road transport costs would increase, adding to costs of every day needs.

Think tanks should think again or not at all.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.

Comments(7)

PinzaC55 says...
3:34pm Thu 1 Nov 12

"Even though the majority of the road tax is used for anything but road maintenance,"

The "road tax" is simply a tax like any other and goes to George Osbourne to be dished out as he sees fit or possibly to pay his train fare.
Do you think the tax you pay on a bottle of booze should be ploughed back into better distilleries?

Report this post »

Buzz Light-year says...
3:52pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Happy to give VAT its correct title but repeatedly not for VED.

What's that all about then?

Report this post »

akaroa says...
11:50pm Thu 1 Nov 12

This subject has been written about in national dailies for the last week. This letter is pure plagiarism

Report this post »

Magicman! says...
1:35am Fri 2 Nov 12

Essentially, the Tories are running out of bits of Britain to sell off... they're partway through with the NHS and the only other thing they can thing of selling off are roads - with a proposal being to privatise motorways and charge people for using them... obviously this would have the effect of at least doubling traffic on roads like the A62, and potentially increasing risk as drivers would try and do motorway speed on such roads.

Report this post »

pedalling paul says...
10:01am Fri 2 Nov 12

VED goes into a big pot along with all our national taxes. So some of my Income tax and VAT helps the Highways Agency maintain motorways which i can't cycle along. Also trunk roads like the A64 which I prefer not to pedal along.

Report this post »

greenmonkey says...
10:02am Fri 2 Nov 12

Do you mean the A64 magicman? With you on the NHS - financial crisis hitting many sections of NHS is consequence of Labour private finance of new hospitals and services - those loans now have to be repaid with the profit going to the private sector at higher interest rate than government bonds.

Report this post »

ColdAsChristmas says...
2:17pm Fri 2 Nov 12

It was Churchill in 1936 (Stanley Baldwin Government) who did away with road tax for the roads only.
One of the biggest scams is the £300Million the government has put aside to subsidise useless electric cars. An 80 mile daytime range with an 8 hour charge time, you work it out!
Don't forget the £Billions in the Green Investment Bank! They have gone green mad.

Report this post »

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree