Sir, – I applaud the sensible approach of Paul Finlay (September 29th) to diesel laundering. He has hit the nail on the head. Refund the agricultural diesel users for duty paid and put the gangsters out of business by rendering their activities pointless.
The elimination of road tax and tolls by extracting the same revenue level through extra tax on the fuel at point of purchase is also a great efficiency. It is the ultimate implementation of the “polluter pays” principle. It eliminates the need for people saving up to pay their annual road tax. Green Party-style finessing of an emissions-based road tax would be eliminated by a fair and transparent tax that would cost the exchequer a lot less to collect. Civil servants could be released to do more meaningful work, which would serve the taxpayer more effectively. However, I can already visualise the Sir Humphrey-types in the senior ranks of the Civil Service finding arguments for the retention of the status quo.
Now that the rail freight business is to be opened to competition, I would consider giving the rail operators their diesel at a lesser duty rate on the grounds that they are removing so many HGV journeys from our unfit-for-purpose secondary road routes. I would accord the same duty reduction to all bus and rail passenger operators, thereby encouraging the use of public transport. It wouldn’t take too much calculation to put a proper level of price increase on the fuel. – Yours, etc,