P SSENTIAL USER
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Treasury lambasted for rejecting fuel user rebate
lly Criritoprier Watton PETER CARROLL (pictured), the former owner of Seymour Transport, who plans to run as a candidate in the next election, has lambasted the Treasury for claiming it could not implement an Essential User Rebate (EUR) on the pounds of cost and potential fraud.
Carroll's comments follow from answers to a written Parliamentary question posed to the Treasury by Liberal Democrat shadow transport secretary Norman Baker. asking about the assessments it had made in regards to an EUR for hauliers.
Speaking on behalf of the Treasury, Labour MP Sarah McCarthy-Fry says:"EU law does not allow for a reduced fuel duty rate just for hauliers. A reduced rate for commercial vehicles would be allowable."
She adds that it would have "significant Exchequer costs" and "in this time of fiscal consolidation, such expenditure and fiscal risk would not be appropriate-.
The Treasury was also concerned that introducing an EUR would lead to administrative costs for government and industry, and risk fraud and evasion. Carroll argues that he does not buy the argument that an EUR would be open to fraud because the UK bus sector has a similar system. He says: "The fact that something can be subject to fraud doesn't mean you don't provide it."
Meanwhile, lobby group TransAction has contacted law firm Class Law to ask how legal it is for a rebate to he applied to some transport industries, such as buses, trains, and planes. hut not road haulage.
"We'd love to he able to mount a legal challenge against the government," says TransAction founder Mike Presneill.
Both the Freight Transport Association and Road Haulage Association refused to make any comment on policy formation for an EUR.