Editorial Enough is enough
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NIGEL LAWSON joins a long queue of Chancellors of the Exchequer who have decided that a tax on transport is a dripping roast. Road transport never has had any fat — in the past five years it has become very lean indeed.
The additional taxation cannot come from reserves if there aren't any. It must therefore be passed on to the customer and this eventually means to the general public. The public and all industrialists should be made aware of that additional cost now.
This is a task that should not be left to individual operators but tackled at national level with a substantial advertising campaign.
Through its many representatives in the Confederation of British Industry, road haulage must make industry aware that the Treasury is responsible for the increased cost of transport. The CBI should appraise all its members of the fact that increasing costs will shortly be passed on in the form of higher haulage rates.
Industry and public must be prepared to pay these increases which will in turn lead to increased inflation.
Although the transport industry has become used to annual tax increases, it need not go on weakly accepting them. Now is the time to tell the Treasury that enough is enough. Action now could stop the tax spiral in 1985. It must not be left until next January — that's too late.