Road charges up 35-55 p.c.

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 2

Road charges up 35-55 p.c.

Wellington reporter Road-user charges will go up an average of 46 per cent from February 1 next year. This is* expected by the Government to increase the costs of urban ’and rural cartage about 3.5 per cent, thus having only a small Impact on inflation. ■- ’ ■ The increase will add $9 million to income from road-user charges in 1984-85, still leaving a shortfall in the amount that heavy vehicles have been paying towards the true costs of

maintaining the roading network. In 1985-86, the increase is expected to bring in an extra $59 million. This will mean the total income from road-user charges will be about $lB9 million. “For the first time, next year, heavy vehicles will be paying their fair share of roading costs,” said the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble. The new scale will apply from February 1 for distance charges and from April I for time licences.

Mr Prebble said that bedcause of distortions in the schedule of . road-user charges, the increases paid by individual vehicles would vary considerably. Most vehicles would face rises of between 35 to 55 per cent Until now, the road transport industry had been getting a hidden subsidy, he said, because, the taxpayer had been meeting the difference between what heavy trucks had been paying in road-user charges and the true cost of the damage they did to the roads.