Environment groups call for more steeply graduated road tax
Fri 02 September 2005
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Campaign groups Transport 2000 and Friends of the Earth are calling for a more steeply graduated system of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) to give greater incentive for people to buy less polluting cars.
Friends of the Earth called on the Government to raise road tax on the most polluting cars to £500 as well as introducing additional tax bands with £50 between each band.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Stephen Joseph of Transport 2000 said that there is a strong case for introducing more steeply graduated VED bandings. He said: "People are trading up to more gas guzzling vehicles, more fuel inefficient vehicles and that is causing big problems in terms of hitting various pollution targets."
Speaking on the same programme, Christopher MacGowan, SMMT Chief Executive said: "The chancellor takes an amazing amount of taxation out of motoring as a whole already. One has to be very very careful that you don't just use this as yet another tax raising mechanism."
Related Links
Friends of the Earth press release
SMMT Press Releases
Transport 2000 News
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