Electric vehicle owners escape fuel tax
Over 75 per cent of road users support an electric vehicle usage fee, a survey by the Australian Automobile Association has found.
The fuel excise earns the government $18 billion a year, but electric vehicle owners aren’t contributing.
Automobile Association of Australia Managing Director Michael Bradley wants to find a middle ground, to “bring them into the tax system” without “disincentivising” Australians from buying them.
“We can’t have a situation where you’ve got have and have-nots on the road.
“We don’t want a heavy-handed tax on technology, but at the same time, we’ve got to make sure the money’s there to build the public transport and the roads that we’re going to need in the next couple of years.”
Motorists currently pay 41 cents per litre of petrol in tax. Mr Bradley suggests that drivers of electric vehicles be taxed on their fuel source too, at an equitable rate.
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