Forum told: we fight on
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• This week's government Road Haulage Forum left ministers In no doubt that, despite concessions in the Budget, the industry will not rest until British hauliers get a better deal on fuel.
Monday's meeting was chaired by Transport Minister Lord Whitty (Lord Macdonald was giving evidence at a parliamentary select committee hearing) and attended by Trade and Industry Minister Patricia Hewitt and Treasury Minister Stephen Timms.
The FTA's Geoff Dossetter reports "good progress on a number of topics" but adds: "The ministers present were left in no uncertain terms that the problem of high transport taxes is nowhere near solved." With Budget 2001 only 11 months away, the PTA and the RHA say the government must recognise the problem now.
One proposal which the ETA is considering is a separate fuel for goods vehicles. "In the same way there is red diesel for agriculture, perhaps there could be a different colour fuel for goods vehicles," says Dossetter.
RHA national chairman John Bridge is pursuing the recently updated "essential user rebate" (OM 13-19 April). He warns: "It would be reckless of the government to ignore the devastating loss of revenue from hauliers buying fuel abroad."
The next forum will be held in late June/early July.
• Treasury Minister Stephen Timms is to write to members of the forum to explain how increases to diesel are calculated. 'Real increases" this year amount to 3.4%, compared with an inflation rate of 2.2%.
Customs officials will attend the forum's "competitiveness" sub-group committee meeting scheduled for 10 May to discuss the 'illicit diesel problem".