Irish tax call
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THE IRISH section of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers has called on its Government to bring tax relief on vehicle depreciation into line with that covering manufacturing plant.
"The age profile of the national fleet is steadily rising, with 64 per cent of vehicles over 3.5 tonnes being five years or older," explained chairman Joe Allidine. "Transport engineers are concerned at this trend as they are acutely aware that maintenance operating costs increase in proportion to the age of the vehicle.
"A further unwelcome development will be an increase in unscheduled downtime due to aged components reaching their optimum mileages. This will ultimately mean more expensive transport to the customer, as well as unreliable service, unless action is taken to redress this situation.
"The easy answer is to buy new vehicles or to carry out major overhauls but with the continuing recession and the high level of Irish excise duties and taxes on vehicles and components make these options difficult," continued Mr Allidine,