Buses to get increased rebate
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• Government advisers have given fresh impetus to hauliers' demands for a fuel duty rebate by recommending that the bus industry's rebate should be increased from 75% to 80%.
The Commission for Integrated Transport (CBI) adds that long-distance coaches, presently excluded from the rebate scheme, should qualify in a bid to' boost passenger numbers.
Geoff Dossetter, a spokesman for the Freight Transport Association, says: "The bus industry is an essential one which everyone wants to see utilised and prospering. "But it is perfectly logical that if the commission can construct a case for a very low rate of duty for the bus industry, then the same applies to fuel used to move essential goods and services for the benefit of society, the economy and the consumer."
A UT spokesman says that it made no reference to an essential user rebate (EUR) for hauliers, because that was not part of its brief.
The government has repeatedly rejected the idea of an EUR for haulage. In an interview with CM, Transport Minister Lord Macdonald claimed: "It could not work without heavy leakage in all directions" ( CM16-22 Nov 2000).
II The CRT reports that domestic road traffic grew by just 0.3% last year—one of the lowest increases ever.