Been saying this for a long time, it is a much fairer system than the current one. One of the few NAFf policies that I fully agree with.
If heavy road freight paid RUCs more in line with the damage they do to the roads, then sure, but given their lobby paid for the National government that’s not going to happen.
For people living paycheck to paycheck RUCs are a bill shock proposition so will mean many of them fall behind and inevitably start getting fined and dragged into the court system. The huge advantage of fuel tax is that its easier to administer, easier to enforce and far easier to pay as its just as you go.
100% on trucks paying for the damage they actually do.
But as you say, probably not going to happen.
But as cars have become more efficient, the number has been growing at a much higher rate than the tax take. Something has to be done about this situation, as it is not sustainable long term.
True, fuel efficiency meaning less petrol consumed & lower tax take is an aspect i’d not considered. Has that trend continued since the EV subsidy was canned? I’d expect the uptake of EVs was counterbalancing the fuel inefficiency of the ever larger Ute, and without a subsidy the EV sales dropped.
In any case, part of the massively increased cost in road construction is due to having to build roads that can safely take the weight of the trucks getting larger since the National legislation changes in 2014; those heavier trucks travelling faster is also part of the reason why there are more pot holes. Yet the operators that have gotten extremely wealthy have never had to pay their way to use the roads. Unlike the various rail / coastal shipping operators who could transport far more freight far more efficiently (if less time flexibly).
The current system of excise tax rewards those with efficient cars (though not EVs) and penalises big polluters.
Unless this comes with an additional carbon/pollution penalty this is going to be great news for V8 Commodore drivers, and terrible news for everyone driving a Toyota Aqua.
In the mean time, salty EV owners get to pay triple the road tax per km that a petrol driven Prius does.
I wonder how they’re going to manage the petrol companies from keeping the cost high and pocketing the extra once fuel tax is gone. Is the pricing breakdown of fuel freely available to the public?
Given an ever increasing amount of vehicles are either plug in hybrid or EV, this is probably the best way to do this.
It’s also an election promise, and part of the coalition agreement, so not really a surprise.
I don’t think electric is a problem in the current system, I think hybrid vehicles are the issue. Electric cars operate entirely in one system, but hybrids are across two systems with an unclear split.
We saw the government change their mind over RUC rates for hybrids due to pushback over what the rate should be, because they are split between two systems. And thatsthat’sonly the plugin hybrids. Non-plugin ones don’t charge from electricity so are not under the RUC system, but use a lot less petrol than other petrol cars so pay less tax.
I agree this is not a surprise. It also should help the people claiming their tax back for off-road use of vehicles (I presume they won’t need to do this paperwork anymore).
I do wonder if they are prepared for the debts and debt collection that will inevitably come from a system like RUC. You can’t not pay petrol tax, you can just not pay RUC. As a RUC payer, I’d be keen for some system where it pays itself.
I’ve got a diesel vehicle myself, I’d love a system that automatically pays RUCs. They exist, but are aimed at businesses with a fleet of vehicles.
With electric vehicles, while they operate purely on electricity, taxing it would be a nightmare as you can “refuel” an EV anywhere.
Oh my point wasn’t that we should tax EVs at the charger, but that RUC for EVs can coexist fine with petrol tax. It’s the grey areas of hybrids that really drive the need for petrol vehicles to be on the RUC system.
