TAX ON PETROL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 1 September 1928, Page 29

TAX ON PETROL

i BUSES IN ENGLAND I ;, CHABGE OF, PROFITEERING According to Mr. Winston Churchill the. collection of a halfpenny or ponny for the' petrol tax- I'ioni i-aeh person, travelling in an omnibus is proiitwr-" ipg. The Chancellor of the ErzchirjiK'r niade" this statement in the course of "a reply to. a deputation rcpi- s ;;fivrj jnotcrting and the motor trade, w!:'.< ': made representations to him on the subject of motor taxation. , ; Mr. Cuurchill said he could see no prospect at the present time of a further reduction in the general horsepower duty, but two questions which niight be carefully considered for tho future were those of the second-hand car, and tho horsepower tax prejudicing Britain's power to market her motors fn'the Dominions. "I certainly cannot contemplate," said Mr. CKurehillj "any. further surrender of revenue at the presentf'time.1' Dealing with- the igeneral horsepower duty Mr. Churchill -said: "We are „alleady giving.pjie and a. quarter million pounds in reductions, and I have, no resources at the present time, especially after dropping the kerosene duty, out of which a further reduction of the horsepower tax would be met. "There are, however, two questions which I think might be carefully studied for the future. One is that of the second-hand motor-car, and while I cannot make any promise of any kind in regard to it, I should like to be placed ' in a position to study the matter in more detail for tho purposes of tho future." Then there was the question of the horsepower tax prejudicing Britain's power to market her motors in the Dominions^ —to produce vehicles which effectively held their own against American mass production. That was a moro complicated question, and he was not quite sure that there would be quite the same unanimity about it. "The production of a vehicle which would effectively meet Dominion needs seemed to him to be one of the very first problems to which motor manufacturers Bhould address their minds, and he would study any proposal which would have the effect of facilitating this object. But there again he could not be held to be making any promise." COUNTRY BUS FARES. Referring to the speech of Mr. frank Pick, one of the deputation, on behalf of the London and Provincial Omnibus Owners' Associations, who said that the tax must be passed on to .the pas-' sengers or the public in some .form ot other, Mr. Churchill said: "I'notice .from reports which have reached me from many parts of the country that some of the country omnibus companies are actually collecting from the passenger for a single journey a halfpenny, and in some cases a penny additional charge, and giving the passenger a receipt on which is stamped 'payment of petrol duty.' You say that the tax represents as much as a halfpenny a mile on the running cost of one of your large omnibuses. If this is so, the collection of a halfpenny or penny for the petrol tax from each person travelling in an omnibus is profiteering, and as the subject of fares, has, been raised here I take the opportunity of drawing public attention to it." Mr. Frank Pick said that the fall in the price of petrol had been passed on in various ways—fares, reductions, concessions in wages, and the development of the omnibus business to cover less ' remunerative routes. If ; the taxation was to stand as it was, fares must be increased. . Mr. G. W. Lucas, president of tho Motor Agents' Asspciation, said the present abnormal taxation had a deterrent effect upon the purchase of used cars by the less wealthy, .which meant the restriction of the production of new cars. '■','■' The deputation urged that, whatever tho level of taxation of vehicles generally, there should be a rebate of at least 50 per cent, in respect of all vehicles five years old and over.