RHA, FTA still challenging Treasury over fuel duty

As the industry faces the prospect of another 2p/litre rise in fuel duty on 1 September - the third increase in nine months - the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Freight Transport Association (FTA) both insist they have not given up lobbying on the issue.

The assertion from the trade associations follows the latest quarterly energy report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which finds that UK hauliers are still paying the most in Europe for diesel at the pumps at 103p/litre - nearly 9p more than the next most expensive country, Italy. However, if tax were excluded, the UK would rank 20th out of 27 countries at 35.4p/litre.

A spokeswoman for the FTA says: "We are continuing with our Every Penny Counts campaign to highlight the need for a common-sense approach by government to the issue. We are proposing an approach whereby essential services like the road haulage sector pay a reduced levy.

"The industry is in a weaker position than it was 12 months ago because the government needs to recoup money spent on bailing out the banking sector - and bumping up fuel duty is an easy way of increasing tax revenues." According to the FTA, the cumulative increases in fuel duty from December 2008 to September 2009 will net the Treasury £533m on top of the current £24.6bn it already receives from fuel tax.

Jack Semple, director of policy for the RHA, adds: "We will be intensifying our efforts and are engaging robustly with the Treasury on the fuel duty issue. "It's outrageous that they [the Treasury] have raised road tax by 18%. It's damaging at the best of times but it's unthinkable during a recession."