Nixon Proposes Tax On Lead In Petrol

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 5

Nixon Proposes Tax On Lead In Petrol

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter-Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 20. A proposal to tax the lead used in petrol was introduced by President Nixon yesterday, with the double aim of reducing air pollution and keeping the United States Budget deficit to under SUS2OOO million.

The lead tax would raise about SUSI6OO million a year initially, but the figure would gradually diminish as lead-free petrol sales rose. White House aides said that the lead tax was designed to force a reduction in the use of lead in fuelnow blamed as a major source of pollution in car exhausts.

Manufacturers and importers of lead for fuel purposes would be assessed a tax of $U54.25 on every pound of lead.

This would ultimately raise the price of such petrol to motorists by about 2.3 cents a gallon, and presumably induce refiners to produce lead-free fuel. Lead-free petrol is now marketed in large amounts only by the American Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana. The company emphasises its petrol’s anti-pollution qualities in advertisements.

Although the big three car manufacturers in Detroit now produce vehicles engineered to use leaded fuels, which generate more power, the car makers have said that they will re-design engines when lead-free fuel is made widely available.

Lead was originally added to car fuels to pennit it to burn more efficiently, and thus give the engine more power.

Mr Wilbur Mills (Democrat), chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said, however, that his committee would not even consider the lead tax until after the start of the next financial year, on July 1. He said that the committee, which originates all tax matters in Congress, first had to complete hearings on a trade bill and drug measures before it could take up the| lead tax proposal.

President Nixon said that the budget deficits for the current year would total SUSIBOO million. Earlier, a surplus of SUSISOO million was estimated.

The deficit for the financial year ending on June 30, 1971, was estimated to total about SUSI3OO million against a surplus of the same amount predicted last January. White House aides said

that the reversals would be because of the smaller revenues from corporate and personal incomes, and not to increased Federal Government spending. They denied that the war in Vietnam and the extension of it into Cambodia had added new military spending to upset the budget figures. President Nixon said in a statement he was confident that his economic policies would achieve the Administration’s goal of price stabil-

ity in a climate of sustained economic growth. But he would not hesitate to recommend additional taxes if necessary when he submits his new budget to Congress next January.