4 cent increase on petrol

jimmynokia

http://t.co/avGBYVbq

MOTORISTS ARE FACING a “rotten budget” on 6 December, according to AA Ireland.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this morning AA’s director of policy Conor Faughnan said that reports about increases in motor tax, although not surprising, are very disappointing.
According to The Sunday Times, motorists will be hit with car-tax hikes, as well as a 4c increase in the excise on a litre of petrol.
The Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan confirmed to RTÉ that there will be adjustments in the rates and bands of vehicle taxes.
“If there is truth in the reports, it will cost motorists a tremendous amount of money,” said Faughnan. “It will make people angry, particularly those who have bought cars in the past few years.”
It will also not work as a revenue raising mechanism, he said.
“The tax hikes will simply just take money out of people’s pockets and away from other sectors of the economy as they will not be able to spend,” he explains.
Those who own greener and cleaner cars will actually see their tax bills rise significantly.
Faughnan explains that the Government had to re-balance the tax system as it was losing revenue as cars became greener – and more popular.
The Government’s Scrappage Scheme enticed people to scrap their old, less environmentally-friendly cars and purchase greener replacements which fell into low-cost tax bands.
According to the Sunday Times, those in Band A could see their road tax rise by €66, while those in band B may have to pay an extra €64 per year.
“The possible increase in petrol costs is going to be a bigger story for motorists though,” claims Faughnan.
“Rising fuel and diesel prices have been a problem for months – and this has been particularly pronounced in the last few weeks,” he said.
The combination of rising prices and expected tax hikes will make this a very grim budget for motorists.”

AlekSmart

Whats of equal interest to C&T posters is how the Government is deftly moving to substantially INCREASE Public Transport fares in tandem with presiding over a substantial worsening in general service levels and availability.

IMO the two aspects should be interlinked as we (Ireland) have already made substantial committments regarding energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

These committients are enshrined in various elements of so-called Travel and Transport Policy,but incredibly the greater package of Government action is now seen to be focused totally on significant increases in all transport costs.

In some ways it represents a "Year Zero" approach as it offers no escape route for people willing to attempt a greener eco lifestyle and actually imposes a worsening of lifestyle upon them.

The private motorist simply represents a gigantic sponge from which ever more taxation and associated monies can be wrung.

There is quite a deal of scope for Ireland to facilitate a swing back to Public Transport but presiding over Network Direct style destructive retrograde implimentations is most certainly NOT what Government Policy should be about.

Aard

And so it begins: the mass urbanisation of Ireland. Goodbye one-off housing, and good riddance.


(Ok, not so dramatic, but still.)