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[Article] Hauliers slam border tax plans

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  • 28-07-2004 8:19am
    #1
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,250 ✭✭✭✭


    http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-586748676-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp
    Hauliers slam border tax plans
    25/07/04 00:00
    By Anton McCabe

    The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) said new proposals by the British government to tax vehicles will create an administrative nightmare for hauliers operating along the border.

    Last week, British transport secretary Alistair Darling announced plans to charge hauliers for every mile of road they use instead of charging tax on vehicles and fuel.

    Darling plans to introduce the changes over the next ten years. The charges will be incurred using a form of satellite tracking with tracking devices fitted to vehicles.

    ``This is part of the complete lack of thought put into road transport on a European level'' said Jimmy Quinn, spokesman for the IRHA.

    ``England see their own industry handicapped by the domestic taxation regime and penalised by tolls on the Continent.''

    Road patterns along the border are complex, making it uncertain how pricing will be administered.

    Monaghan haulier Gerry McMahon frequently operates along the Clones-Cavan road, which crosses the border four times between two destinations in the Republic.

    He said he cannot see how the new charges could be imposed for using the roads.

    ``We export quite a lot via Larne - we may divert to Dublin if there is going to be another cost.

    ``To remain in the business we have to use the roads, the owners of the roads have a monopoly,'' he said.

    Sheila McCabe of McCabe Transport at Cootehill, Co Cavan, said extra costs would have to be passed on to the customer.

    She queried whether pricing was worth administering along the border.

    ``It could be a lot of work for something that could only bring in a small percentage of the British exchequer's income'' she said.

    A spokesman for another haulage company, Michael McGrane Haulage of Inver, Co Donegal, said ``If we are hauling to or from Dublin, we have to go through Enniskillen - there is no avoiding it.''

    The Roads Service in the North said it had not drawn up pricing plans for the use of roads.


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