RHA outlines implications of duty rise ahead of Commons debate
British haulage businesses pay nearly twice as much in diesel duty as their European neighbours, a point highlighted by the Road Haulage Association on the eve of the fuel duty parliamentary debate.
Geoff Dunning, Chief Exec of the RHA, stressed how UK hauliers are at a severe disadvantage from the off, paying at least £25,000 a year in diesel duty for a standard 44-tonne truck while Luxemburg pays as little as £12,000. French hauliers pay the equivalent of £16,000 or £15,000 for those in Belgium.
“Road diesel is a key industrial fuel, affecting the price of almost everything we make and buy,” argued Mr Dunning.
“It already amounts to a 30% tax on this element of the supply chain – far more than in any other EU country.”
He added that British transport firms must make the decision to pass costs on to British customers or face losing work to foreign competition; an outcome which would starve the UK Government of any duty or other tax revenue. Research by The TaxPayers’ Alliance found that motorists are each paying an average of £293 extra in taxes every year.
As it stands, January would see a duty increase of 3.02p a litre with a second rise of around 3.41p a litre in August; an overall bloating of at least 6p a litre.
Mr Dunning illustrates what these “out of step” measures would mean for transport business: “These increases would widen the gap between what UK industry pays for transport and what its EU competitors pay by another £2,700 per truck per year.
“The transport industry’s customers are looking for rates freezes and even reductions – not the increases that will have to be sought as a result of diesel duty increases.”
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