The Fight Continues
Reacting to the pre-Budget statement in which
the Chancellor announced that the duty on autogas will gradually
increase over the next three years with the differential being
announced in the 2004 Budget, LPGA chairman, Howard Kerr of Calor,
said that the fight would continue.
"It’s not over yet," he
said.
"It’s good news that we will
have three years of certainty, but we’re still fighting
and will continue to do so. To use a football analogy, we’ve
only reached half time and we’re ready for the second half.
We’ll continue to fight to make sure that the duty increase
is as slow and as small as possible."
This message was echoed by LPGA director general,
Tom Fidell, who said: “This is very disappointing news
after all the work we have done on the consultation for road
fuel gases.
"We will, however, have a period of
three years of certainty after the 2004 Budget and will, of course,
be continuing to lobby the government to try and minimise the
increase to be announced in next year’s budget."
Mike Imeson at Vauxhall said: “We had
put up a jolly good case for autogas and the Government chose
not to listen to us. We intend to ask for clarification and until
we get clearer answers we will consider what to do.
"Sales of Vauxhall dual fuel vehicles
are up by 71% on 2002, and a third on our own forecast. Lp gas
makes good sense to our customers.
"Orders have been flat since. Vauxhall
is unlikely to be able to sustain the current sales growth during
2004 if duty rises on lpg."
The following is the relevant extract
from the Chancellor’s pre-Budget statement:
"The duty on road fuel gases has not increased since Budget 2001, in
line with the Government's commitment to freeze these duties until
2004 at the earliest. Budget 2003 announced a consultation on how best
to ensure that future support for road fuel gases continues to reflect
environmental and other policy objectives. Following this extensive
consultation, the Government has decided that the environmental benefits
offered by liquefied petroleum gas (lpg) no longer justify the level
of duty differential it currently receives, while the long period of
high duty support has allowed the necessary infrastructure to be developed.
The Government will gradually increase the duty rate for lpg over the
next three years, setting duty differentials on a path towards a level
commensurate with the fuel's environmental benefits. Consistent with
the Government's commitment to give three-year certainty on duty differentials
for alternative fuels, future differentials for the next three years
will be announced in Budget 2004."
Return to December/January
2003-04 News
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