Road-user ‘subsidy’ denied

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 9

Road-user ‘subsidy’ denied

Parliamentary reporter A 50 per cent rise in roaduser charges is necessary if heavy vehicles are to fully meet their share of wear and tear on roads, the Minister of Transport, Mr Gair, said yesterday. He was commenting on what he called “selective use” of statistics by the Opposition spokesman on Transport, Mr R. W. Prebble. Mr Prebble told members of the Chartered Institute of Transport in Christchurch on Thursday that “a huge concealed sub-

sidy” in the form of excessively low road-user charges was favouring road transport against rail. Quoting a former Government statistician, Mr V. T. Baker, who made submissions to the Parliamentary select committee, on the bill deregulating the road transport industry, Mr Prebble said an increase of 400 per cent in road user charges was necessary if heavy vehicles were to compete equally with the Railways. Rail paid the full costs of its permanent way, he said.

But Mr Gair said that a special Ministry of Works report on Mr Baker’s submission showed that a 400 per cent increase was “well wide of the mark,” and that a 50 per cent increase only was necessary to bring the full cost of wear and tear to bear on road operators. A special working committee is examining roaduser charges now. At the end of the March year, charges were $34 million short of the $134 million calculated to fully meet road costs.

The Ministry of Works says that the expected 12 per cent shift of traffic from rail to road under the deregulating legislation will add up to $7.5 million to that total. Road development that will need to be brought forward by five years will add another $7 million to road-user charges, but this figure could be spread over several years. A falling inflation rate is expected to bring down the annual increases in roaduser charges.