RHA Bitterly Disappointed at Pre-Budget Statement

LONDON, November 24, 2008: The Road Haulage Association is both bitterly disappointed and angry that despite putting forward a strong case for UK hauliers that seemingly received a sympathetic response from Government, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling has today announced an increase in fuel duty to compensate for the VAT reduction by 2.5 per cent.

"This is an outrageous announcement", said RHA Chief Executive Roger King. "We have been putting forward the case of unfair competition from foreign hauliers for many years. Indeed the Transport Select Committee itself made a case for measures to level the playing field between UK hauliers and their continental counterparts. Therefore this announcement represents not only a smack in the teeth for UK hauliers, but challenges the conclusion of Westminster's own Select Committee.

"The Chancellor claims that the increase in duty is offset by a reduction in VAT. But he does not seem to appreciate that while this may be true for motorists, it is NOT true for hauliers because they can reclaim VAT in full. So this represents a real increase in the industry's operational costs and is not what we expected or what UK plc deserved."

RHA National Chairman Andy Boyle added: "I am absolutely livid at this announcement. If things were not bad enough, it now seems that we have a Chancellor who does not understand his own tax system."