Harmonize or abolish taxes
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AT THE 1972 Congress in Estoril the IRU called for the establishment of a common system of road taxing based on marginal utilisation. It declared then and reiterated this week that this was the only system that could achieve the criteria then set. This was the optimum use of the road network, covering the expenditure of construction and subsequent maintenance and the establishment of unbiased road rail competition.
To achieve these ends IRU wants all revenue collected for the purpose to be used to improve and maintain the infrastructure. This would however exclude expenditure on purely public service roads as they could not be regarded as for international use. The system would be phased in and in the meantime there would be no compensating tax "by any of another" name imposed to replace the one being abolished.
The IRU is concerned that not all monies collected as "infrastructure tax" in Europe are used for that purpose and that steps have not yet been taken to ensure that EEC member states do not introduce arbitarily, additional taxes. There is also deep concern that the risk of double taxation is still great in respect of intra-community traffics.