Reduce Six to one vote
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too-high
truck tax-FTA to end BRS dispute
• UK taxes on commercial vehicles exceed the road costs which they incur, and this should be taken into account as a reason for reducing the tax on trucks, the Freight Transport Association told the Chancellor of the Exchequer this week.
In a letter to Mr Anthony Barber, the Association, reminding him of its previous submissions on the subject, has pointed out that entry into the EEC has added a new factor. Under the terms of a 1965 decision of the EEC Council, tax on commercial vehicles "is to be limited to a sum equivalent to the total infrastructure costs applicable to those vehicles". This, says the FTA, is not the case in the UK where the taxes far exceed this cost.
A tax reduction, says the FTA, is essential if British trade and industry are to compete effectively. • The four-week old Midlands BRS Ltd strike involving 1000 drivers and 18 depots was settled late on Tuesday. At a mass meeting in Birmingham, the drivers voted by a 6 to 1 majority to return to work. It is understood that about 700 of the strikers attended the meeting.
The men's original claim was for £2.50 for holders of an hgv driving licence. The strike has been settled without any agreement on this issue being reached but BRS management has promised to review bonus payments to drivers as soon as Government policy allows. The management has also agreed to make a lump sum payment of £45 to each driver to help him overcome any hardship which the strike has caused him.
Mr Alan Law, TGWU commercial trade group secretary, in advising the men to accept the offer said it was the best that they could hope for but that he believed the bonus review would produce the £2.50 that they had originally asked for.