Annual car tax on the UK’s biggest ‘gas guzzlers’ is set to reach GBP200 (from GBP165-170) on Wednesday, according to the Evening Standard, a London daily newspaper.
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Chancellor (UK finance minister) Gordon Brown will sting buyers of the ‘dirtiest’ cars in a ‘green’ Budget meant to curb global warming, the paper said on Monday.
The report said Brown will create a new ‘super-band’ of duty for the biggest cars that push out more than 225g of carbon dioxide per kilometre. At the same time he will cut vehicle duty for smaller cars with the cleanest emissions, making them half as expensive to tax.
The paper added that prominent politicians will be among the losers under the new tax scale. They include prime minister Tony Blair, whose family car is a Chrysler Grand Voyager that achieves only 16mpg around town and pumps out 319g of CO2/k, and deputy prime minister John ‘Two Jags” Prescott, who drives a Jaguar XJ that emits over 250g of CO2/km.
However, the report added, the top bracket will only apply to vehicles bought after Wednesday’s budget, excluding second-hand cars or those already purchased. At present, the maximum duty is from £165 for a petrol car pushing out 185g, up to £170 for diesels. It will go up by about £10 for these cars, including older models.
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By GlobalDataThe Evening Standard said drivers of so-called Chelsea tractors – 4x4s (SUVs) such as the Land Rover Discovery and the Jeep Cherokee (Liberty) – will pay more. But pro-environment campaigners reportedly say that, with the biggest cars costing GBP80,000 and sometimes thousands of pounds a year to insure, the extra GBP20 is not much of a deterrent.
A Daily Mirror columnist on Monday write that the entire tax was less than the cost of three tanks of fuel for an SUV like BMW’s X5
The Evening Standard said a record 187,000 four-wheel-drive SUVs were sold in Britain last year, more than double the number a decade ago. According to Friends of the Earth, the cost of motoring has fallen slightly while the Labour party has been in power, while the price of train and bus tickets have risen ahead of inflation.
Brown will use his 10th Budget to show his concern for the environment, the Evening Standard said, including new measures to save energy.
The news of the vehicle tax hike followed reports at the weekend that UK taxpayers now face the heaviest burden in history, according to accountants Ernst & Young.
