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Budget scheme will hit diesel laundries
Page 14
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• Fuel launderers face a crackdown under new government measures designed to tackle cross-border fuel fraud.
Among the proposals unveiled by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Budget is the introduction of an EU-wide 'Euromarker' to be added to rebated red and green diesel.
This will make it harder for fuel to be 'bleached', while making it easier to detect vehicles using red diesel bought abroad for Illicit use on the UK's roads.
Under the new rules suppliers of rebated fuel will be required to provide Customs with monthly reports on their customers and the quantity of fuel they have bought.
"This is a small step in the right direction, but Is not the final step." says Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailer's Association. ''A new marker, if it is harder to disguise and remove, will have benefits. However, in terms of differentiating between laundered and legitimate fuel you never see the colour, so the only way to reduce laundering is by Increasing roadside tests and greater policing."
Chris Fylan, RHA area manager for Merseyside, Cumbria and Lancashire, adds that anything that will help legitimate haulage operators is welcome. But he stresses that cutting fuel duty would be the best way of reducing the temptation to buy illegal diesel.
The National Audit Office estimates that diesel fraud in the UK and Northern Ireland cost the Treasury UMW in 2000.