While fuel costs might not be rising for most, following the chancellor’s freeze on duty in yesterday’s budget, farming bosses were less happy.
The NFU said a higher rate duty band for high-emission vehicles penalises farmers whilst doing nothing to address the issue of 4x4 use in urban areas.
Proposals announced by Gordon Brown will see vehicles with the highest carbon emissions penalised with a new £210 Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rate, an annual increase of £50.
While the NFU believes this move is aimed at the urban use of 4x4s, it will have the most severe impact on farmers who rely on these vehicles during their working day.
When coupled with the announced increase of 1.25 pence per litre for red diesel planned to be introduced from September 1 2006 the VED announcement completes a budget double hit for farmers.
NFU president Peter Kendall said: “We were disappointed to see that no exemption was made for farmers who rely on 4x4 vehicles for their day-to-day livelihood. We would have liked to have seen the chancellor differentiate between those cases in which a higher tax rate is used as an incentive for people to choose the more friendly option, and those cases in which we are not talking about choice but necessity.”
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