Tax On Possession

Tax On Possession

Sir,

I read with interest the letter from Mr. Martin Pulbrook on the subject of vehicle road tax and the report in the Northampton Memory and Herald that the Minister of Transport was considering introducing instead a tan on tho Possession of a car.

The response from the Ministry to Mr. Pulbrook’s obiections stated that they were seeking to simplify enforcement and reduce evasion of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).

Might I suggest that the simplest way of doing this is to incorporate VED in something the vehicle user must purchase to run his vehicle i.e. Petrol or diesel oil.

By doing this both requirements of the Ministry bee satisfied; (1), evasion is impossible and (2), collection is simplified as it would merely be a proportion of an increase in Pen,’ ta. collected from the sales outlets as at presant.

The benefits to car collectors and other low milaige road users such as OAP’s would be appreciated and at the same time would make the heavier road users more responsible in their attitude and encourage the development of alternative fuels or supplements such as gas or alcohol.

The MoT certificate with a little modification would provide all the data concerning the vehicle and be updated automatically each year on renewal.

The average mileage for cars is variously quoted to be 10,000 to 16,000 miles per year and I suspect it is nearer the higher figure as 80% of the cars on the road are company cars or company rnaintained, however let us take 12,000 miles per year tube the average figure. If we now take the average fuel consumption to be 25 m.p.g., then the number of gallons consumed per year per car is 480.

Thus we have only to increase the price of petrol from 132p to 1441/2p per gallon to return £60 VED.

I do not claim originality for the suggestion of incorporating the VED in petrol tax, but whilst I know it to have been put forward many times over the years, I have never heard an objective reply as to why it should not be introduced. Perhaps the Ministry would take this opportunity to clarify the issue. Guildford W. LISTER