Hauliers want diesel oil taxes to be cut
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PROFESSIONAL hauliers want the Chancellor of the Exchepier to cancel the tax disadvantages of diesel oil, and to ease yther tax burdens.
Road Haulage Association director general George Newnan has written to Sir Geof'rey Howe, pointing out that he three-year-old 5p tax dif'erential is neither equitable lor in the interests of fuel conservation.
"Diesel-engined vehicles are some 20 per cent more fficient than petrol-engined vehicles in terms of energy saving, and bearing in mind :he universal preoccupation with energy conservation, we Delieve that it should be Government policy to encourage the use of diesel-engined vehicles and not to penalise them as at present," he said.
At the moment, duty on diesel fuel is 41.82p per gallon, compared with 36.82p on petrol.
Mr Newman has also drawn lie Chancellor's attention to the £230m gap between directly attributable road costs and the amount of vehicle excise duty paid by operators.
RHA says that the excess taxation is "indirect and unjustifiable", and it has gone on to say that it would be wrong to levy a social cost • "Almost all forms of industrial activity, including the railways, impose immeasurable costs on the community through noise and pollution, but no demands arise for the levying of taxes in compensation for these costs."