U.K. may drop car road tax

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 6

U.K. may drop car road tax

NZPA-Reuter London 1 ii British motorists are looking forward to a phasing out : of the country’s annual road . tax of nearly $lOO, but they ] seem likely to face an in-li crease of around 37 cents in ■ the price of petrol instead. s After months of debate 1 and departmental in-fighting, i 1 the British Government is < believed to have reached a , final decision which will be < announced early next month after the resumption of Par- i hament. < The $92.50 annual tax is i levied on each of Britain's : 19M cars, regardless of their < size, and the complicated;] bureaucracy involved in co!) lecting the tax is seen as a t

big factor working against its continuing. The prime mover of the) scheme to scrap the tax, the Transport Secretary' (Mr William Rodgers), is be : lieved to have regarded it as) unfair that a Mini driver! should be taxed exactly the, same as the owner of a Rolls-Royce or a Ferrari — while an increase of 37 cents a gallon on the price 1 of petrol could put drivers off buying “gas guzzlers.” The cost to the Government in tracking down car owners evading the licence at present amounts to some $ll IM a year — an estimat-i ed seven to nine per cent of all the cars on Britain’s roads somehow avoiding the tax.