Conservatives call for VED Tax rises to be scrapped

Plans to increase car tax on the most polluting cars are a "ticking timebomb" that could become next year's 10p tax row, the government has been warned.
In a debate, ministers were criticised for planning to make the highest band of vehicle excise duty (VED) apply to cars registered after 2001.
The Tories said many families would see car tax double. Labour MPs said many could not afford to change their car.
Ministers said the new tax bands would save 1.3m tonnes of CO2 by 2020.
The changes, due to come into effect next year, will mean cars will be put in one of 13 bands from A to M, based on their carbon emissions.
High polluting
Owners of the most polluting cars in band M will pay £440 in tax. And from April 2010, people buying the most polluting cars would pay a one-off "showroom tax" of up to £950.
In his Budget speech, Chancellor Alistair Darling said it would "encourage manufacturers to produce cleaner cars".
This means that owners of larger cars bought since March 2001 will find that their road tax will rise steeply from next April, the Tories claim.
In a Conservative-led debate on Wednesday, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond said the measures were "ticking timebomb" under the chancellor's successor for 2009, "just as surely as his predecessor's Budget was primed to explode under him".
The Conservatives say 3.7m people will lose £90 a year under the changes, and overall more than one million families will see their car tax double.

'Punitive taxes'

Mr Hammond said the new system had been "dressed up as an environmental measure" but was "in truth, an old-fashioned revenue-raising measure" aimed at "filling a bankrupt Treasury".
He said motorists - who he said were already paying more than £1,800 a year in tax on average - may not be able to afford to change their car and would be "unable to change the vehicle they drive because its value has collapsed, yet forced to pay the chancellor's punitive taxes to stay on the road".

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories warn of car tax 'timebomb'

Same old Labour fleecing the motorists/public under the guise of saving the planet. The motorist has been clobbered time and time again , the tax take on petrol is one of the highest in Europe they wanted road charging but have backed down. These latest tax rises mean many will see their car tax double , most governments make the public transport system a viable alternative by ensuring it is of a good enough quality this government seems hell bent on forcing (probably the poorest) people off the road on to our erratic sub standard transport network.

No doubt Labour will claim this is much needed money to invest in the public sector , this is no longer credible Brown found £2.7bn in seconds just to try and rescue him and his government from the mess they created with a tax cut bribe they have squandered vast amounts of our money during the good times saving nothing for the bad ..... this administration is a shambles roll on the General Election.