'Green' car tax changes a fundraiser, Treasury admits

Whoops, what a giveaway! And how often is that said on the day after Budget day?

But buried in the small print of yesterday's Budget was an official admission that changes to the car tax system, being spun as having 'green' objectives, will in fact be a healthy fundraiser for the Treasury.

The Treasury has said that by 2010-11, when the six additional car tax bands and the up to £950 graduated ‘showroom tax’ on cars in the upper tax bands come into force, higher vehicle excise duties will be delivering an extra £735m to the government’s coffers.

When the tax on lower emissions cars is also set to go down, the fact that tax income is projected to increase by such a huge amount rather indicates that Alistair Darling himself knows that the changes will not remotely encourage people to switch to less polluting cars.

Probably because, as we all know, many people actually need larger cars to accommodate their families and aren’t just driving them out of perversity or for their own entertainment.

So here we have confirmation from the horse's mouth that these car tax changes are not a ‘green’ move at all, but a way of milking more money from the already over-burdened car user. And what a surprise .... they did it anyway!

Coupled with the news that the fuel tax increase (albeit delayed til October) will be contributing an additional £270m to the Treasury by 2010, and that the government will announce the results of its investigations into how to hit car users with yet more bills via road charging next year, it’s no wonder this Budget has been described as 'Darling's war on the family car'.