Fuel duty rise/ Road charges

[cazzz1975]

Im surprised this hasnt been covered in news, what do you think of the articles below regarding road charging and increasing fuel duty?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18064363

http://www.dailymail....tfall-green-cars.html

[Davethedog]

How could they do road charging, I know tag the car, but how much to mark every road in Britain. Its a joke.

Just eroding civil liberties.

[cazzz1975]

they are going to rent out the roads to private companies who will maintain them and take a share of the toll.I think that is the theory :/

[Gromit]

I think it is rubbish.

The M6 Toll Road in the West Midlands has just seen a 13% reduction in people using it. The Government let the operator set the charges. So in order to keep down wear and tear and maintenance they set the price for vans and lorries very high. Pricing them off the road. So instead of relieving jams on the M6 they have made it worse for most people.

[mccfluff]

but if you can afford to drive on it, its great, its empty.....

costs my boss £9. somthing a day!

[cazzz1975]

if they lease all the main roads people will have no choice but to use them, at the moment there are alternatives to the m6 toll. hence the lack of uptake.

[Gromit]

Road Tax earns the Government £40billion annually of which about £4billion is spent on transport.

There is no reason to involve privatising the roads (the roads we have paid for) and charging people to use something they have already paid for.

[ummmm]

I've been on it a couple of times. Always been empty.

[Gromit]

// Always been empty. //

It is operating at half the number of users it was meant to have. As the recession has hit, the nuber of people using it has fallen ever year.

// From 2008, traffic levels started to fall. Traffic in the first quarter of 2009 was 10% less than the year before, 1Q2008 was itself 10% less than 1Q2007. At 39,000 vehicles-per-day (Monday-Friday figures) traffic is about half the 74,000 predicted //

[bazwillrun]

whatever way its done the majority of people will end up paying far more to be on the road.

The government will not change anything until it can garauntee its income from taxes and duities to be at least more than it currently makes plus the private companies that will be earning millions from doing it will also want to pay big bonuses and dividends to its shareholders, so you will see the same as with the utility companies, non stop price hikes and all manner of excuses used to justify it.

and all the while theyll be telling you how you benefit from the new system

[pdq1]

Why they insist on charging motorists to the hilt is beyond comprehension. Travel for most is like food a necessity. They should be thinking of a new way of fleecing the public. They have tried green taxes but this seems to affect mostly the poor. They brought in NI which really is an increase in income tax.

An obvious solution is to have a land tax. This may not suit wealthy landowners with hundreds/thousands of hectares but they could easily release this to the community. Farmers can become multi-millionaires when releasing farmland to housebuilders. All they need is planning permission and this government is intent of releasing more land for building.

[TTG]

Review income tax. It's the only tax that takes into account ones ability to pay it. You might be on low wages but have to use a lot of fuel for journey to work using this threads subject as an example.

[Nibble]

That'd be good, I'd review it all the way back to 1802 (Repeal Of Income Tax Bill)...... Please!!!

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis1.htm

In 1802 Pitt resigned as Prime Minister over the question of the emancipation of Irish catholics, and was replaced by Henry Addington. A short-lived peace treaty with Napoleon allowed Addington to repeal income tax

[ludwig]

They'll do it as well as increasing fuel duty, not instead of.

[venator]

Number plate recognition cameras are already installed all over the place, and automatic billing systems for speeding fines will work just as well with road toll bills.

Added bonus of vast increase in cameras - the police will know where everybody has been...

[venator]

The only "fair" tax is VAT.

You only pay when you spend your money, and can save it tax free.

The wealthy can't avoid it, like they do at present - if you see a big expensive car, you know the driver has paid loads of tax on it.

There would be many more rates, of course, but there's a whole army of civil servants in the mountain of our present tax systems who could work it.

VAT on school clothing 0% - VAT on designer dresses - 500%.

VAT on imported luxuries 500% - UK equivalents 50%

The old Purchase Tax system worked along these lines, and worked well.