Motorists paying £42bn a year in car tax

Motorists are being hugely overcharged by government taxation, with drivers paying £42 billion a year to the Treasury, according to new research commissioned by FairFuelUK. However, only 18.6% of this road-user tax goes back into road infrastructure, reports the Western Morning News.

The polling company that carried out the research, ComRes, found that 26.8% of the amount raised by road taxes went on public transport while 54.6% was used on other government spending.

The figures are being released today as FairFuelUK, who are backed by the likes of the RAC and the Freight Transport Association, launches its general election manifesto at Westminster. Founder of the FairFuelUK campaign Howard Cox said: “Time is up for the Treasury to stop fleecing 70% of the electorate from punitively taxing an essential, no-choice-but-to-use resource.

“Instead of taking more than 60% every time we fill up at the pumps, they should be motivating the economy by cutting this taxation.”

Furthermore, a separate study carried out by the RAC Foundation found that in 2012 a total of £30.7 billion was raised from direct motoring taxation (excluding VAT). It also stated that in the same year just £7.5 billion (24% of motoring tax income) was spent on the road network: £3 billion on national roads and £4.5 billion on local roads.

This latest research, which was carried out by transport consultant David Bayliss, showed that the Treasury now receives 9p per mile travelled by car and van drivers net. RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said: “Over the past five years the gap between the Chancellor’s income from motoring tax and what he spends on roads has widened sharply.

“At the same time the pothole backlog has been growing and local authorities are warning that spending commitments on social care and environmental services means there will be even less money available to maintain our highways in the future.”

What do you think about these latest figures on motor tax? Do you feel you’re being fleeced by the government?