SOME YOU WIN SOME YOU LOSE
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
‘ 've been cautious, I've been I prudent..." said Chancellor Kenneth Clarke this week. What he didn't say was: "I've been generous." Putting an extra 3.5p/lit on diesel duty will hardly help those operators already struggling against a rising fuel bill. In the words of one Wiltshire operator: "Obviously I will have to renegotiate rates with my customers." Obviously—but will his customers be prepared to renegotiate rates with him? No doubt the industry breathed a collective sigh of relief on hearing the news that Vehicle Excise Duty was to be frozen once again. But before anybody raises a glass of lower-taxation Scotch to Mr Clarke, it's worth remembering that Britain still has one of the highest levels of VED in the EU. The clarion call of "no liberalisation without harmonisation" still echoes around the corridors of Brussels—unanswered. While the call for tax-breaks for low emission engines ahead of the October 1996 Euro-2 deadline may have fallen on deaf ears in the Treasury, the Chancellor has at least done something to encourage the use of more eco-friendly fuels. The opportunities arising out of the decision to reduce the duty on LPG and CNG must be grasped by as many commercial vehicle operators as possible, not least bus operators who are still running far too many "belchers", to use the expression favoured by Transport Minister Steven Norris. But where was the help for alternative fuel infrastructure? Cuts in CNG/LPG duty alone won't persuade the average truck operator to ditch his beloved derv. Without a proper national CNG/LPG fuelling network the gas-powered truck will always be a local vehicle, condemned to return to its base night after night after night. What is clear is that when it comes to new road-building the Government is expecting an awful lot from private enterprise. Unfortunately the Private Finance Initiative has yet to fire the imagination of all but a handful of private contractors. Despite the Chancellor's assertion that "there are many services that the Government has a duty to provide", roadbuilding no longer seems to be one of them. So has it been a good budget for hauliers? The general reaction from the industry is that it saw it coming on diesel and road building.That doesn't make it any less disappointing. 1905-1995
.1NATERSAIII