The Australian federal Government has not indicated that they will let go of their plan to include the trucking industry in the carbon tax next year.
The ATA (Australian Trucking Association) encouraged the government to exempt transport operators however Greg Combet, the office of Climate Change Minister, has recently confirmed that there will be no change to the current 2 year exemption for the trucking industry.
According to the plan of the government the carbon tax will apply to fuel that is used by the trucking industry from July1 2014. This will add an additional 6.85 cents per litre to the current excise.
A spokesperson for Mr Combet said that the government actually introduced a carbon price as of July 1 2012 but has given the trucking industry a two year transitional period before this carbon price will apply to fuel that is used by trucks larger than 4.5 tonnes.
He said that this period of time gives trucking operators, in particular owner drivers, an opportunity to reconfigure fleets and to re-negotiate any contracts that they have with clients.
David Simon, the ATA Chairman asked the government last week to commit to not extending the tax to trucking in the lead up to the federal election.
He said that truck operators will be in a position where they will wear the cost of increased fuel prices because of an unwillingness of customers to pay for the rise.
Mr Combet’s spokesperson said that the full implementation of the carbon tax in 2014 should only slightly affect the cost of fuel and that vehicles that use CNG, LNG, LPG or biofuels will not pay the effective carbon price
He said that the government is helping small business by giving an increase to the instant asset write off to $6,500 and giving an income tax deduction for the cost of assets that have depreciated.
Peter Cutforth is a Director at Urban E-Learning, a global elearning and web strategy firm based in George St Brisbane. Peter's interests extend to training, safety and compliance, online marketing, and Mobile Apps.
