ROAD-USE CHARGES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 87, 22 October 1928, Page 8

ROAD-USE CHARGES

Tho Government is to be commended for its decision to make a thorough examination of the motor-tax question. The subject has become involved,'and it will not be easy to unravel the tangle. Originally motor-taxes, though partly based upon road-use, did not give full effect to that principle. The tire tax applied the use principle, but the flat-rate license fee did not, and the heavy vehicle tax did not apply it wholly since a lorry used to the maximum paid no more than one not irt constant service. In the division of the revenue also the application of the use principle fell short. The larger boroughs, though receiving their share of the heavy vehicle tax, had nothing out of the revenue handled by the Main Highways Board. In imposing the petrol tax the user principle was more cor^ reetly applied (both in collecting and distributing the revenue), but the' inequities of the earlier scheme were not removed They can b.e removed now only by extending the user principle. It should be possible for engineers to measure with reasonable accuracy the cost of road-making and maintenance for certain volumes of traffic and to adjust the charges accordingly. The difficulty cannot be met by a simple # abolition or reduction of the heavy vehicle tax, as that tax is all j( except drivers' license fees) that goes to the larger boroughs apart from their share of petrol tax reyenue. The Government cannot be generous by saying, "We will remove the tax that does not come to us," It must be prepared to offer some compensation. In collecting the revenue the measure ;of road-wear should be the governing principle, and in distributing it the same principle should bo applied—the cost involved in construction and maintenance because of the volume of traffic.