I FEEL that readers should be made aware of the unfair proposal to split Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) into four groups.

The budget fuel duty escalator is already being applied to fuel duty on environmental grounds: ie the level of duty is being raised above inflation. Owners of larger engined cars already pay more as they use more fuel. If you wish to pay less tax you can do this by using the car less.

However, this change in vehicle duty would be a regressive tax as it is on owning the car, not using it. Families who need a larger car - and many on lower incomes have older, larger cars as they are initially cheaper to buy - and who can least afford to pay more, will now have no option to do so as they are unable to change to a smaller car. This measure will not reduce business mileage as the increased costs will be passed on to the customer.

Cars are getting cleaner and, as older cars are replaced, this trend will continue. However, those who have changed to a diesel will be penalised as the engine tends to be larger than the petrol version.

When all forms of tax on road users are considered then motorists already more than pay their way. This proposal would therefore be purely a way of increasing revenue for the Treasury by way of a "soft target".

MARK TRICKETT,

Sanderson Street, Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.