Bus Passengers Paying £40m. Hidden Fares
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I N paying for their tickets, bus passen
gers annually meet hidden taxes amounting to nearly £40m, a year. This is stated in a leaflet issued by the Joint Fuel Tax Committee for the Passenger Road Transport Industry, which has launched a national campaign against the heavy taxation upon bus operation which causes "inconvenience and hardship" to the travelling public.
Every local authority in the country has been asked to support the campaign and copies of the leaflet have been sent to M.P.s.
The constituent associations of the committee, the Municipal Passenger Transport Association, the Public Trans port Association, the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association and the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association, seek to meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The leaflet states that fuel tax costs the industry over £30m. a year and adds about 3d. to the cost of every mile travelled by a bus. It is pointed out that other oil-using industries pay no tax.
Excise licences add £5.5m. to annual costs and range from £48 for a 26-seat single-decker, to £112 16s. for a large double-decker. There is no justification for charging a higher rate for a bus than
for a private car, rather the reverse
because a bus carries more people in relation to the road space that it occupies. The public service. vehicle licence is a vexatious and unfair impost and repre sents a yearly duty of £500,000, the leaflet declares.