FTA/CBI warn on Budget
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LAST YEAR'S 10p per gallon cut in dery duty should be a first step towards harmonised rates across Europe, Freight Transport Association president Len Payne said earlier this week.
Addressing FTA members at Windermere, Mr Payne renewed the association's appeal to Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Geoffrey Howe to take the bold step of cutting dery tax further in his Budget next week.
"The 10p per gallon reduction achieved after the last Budget should be seen as the first step in a trend to bring the price of Britain's goods vehicle fuel more into line with the rest of Europe," he said.
He said that British 20-vehicle fleets cost £40,000 a year more to operate than their Netherlands equivalents. "This is no way to help Britain and its industry out of the recession."
Mr Payne went on to warn that there were no circumstances in which the Government should be allowed to get away with breaking its pledge not to increase the gross tax take from operators when it switches to gross weight-based vehicle excise duty.
And speaking in Nottingham last week, Confederation of British Industry director-general Sir Terence Beckett kept up his pressure on the Chancellor, by pressing for a cut in the employers' National Insurance surcharge.
"It is just hogwash to say that cutting NIS is too indiscriminate an assistance. It was a burden on the whole of enterprise when it was imposed. It is still a burden of the whole of business enterprise. And it is one which must come off," declared Sir Terence.