MPs want RET date
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ROAD Equivalent Tariff should apply to all Scottish island and west coast ferry services from 1984/85, the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee recommended last week.
In its report on Scottish rural transport, the committee says there is strong support in remote communities for RET, which is a form of subsidy which matches the charge levied on ferries to the cost of an equivalent journey by road.
It accepts that there are practical problems in the exact form of RET to be used, but says that these should not deter the Gov ernment from applying a 1983/84 subsidy based on 75 per cent RET, and going for full RET a year later.
The committee also encountered a considerable volume of complaint about Caledonian MacBrayne, the state-owned shipping company which serves the west coast. It is concerned that insufficient information about Calmac is made public.