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Lib Dems plan to revamp car taxes | |
(about 22 hours later) | |
Lib Dems would aim to win control of road taxes for Holyrood if that was needed to secure road charging. | |
They would also aim to scrap vehicle excise duty as part of a shake-up of motoring tax, transport minister Tavish Scott told party delegates in Aviemore. | |
Mr Scott vowed to replace Chancellor Gordon Brown's "blunt motoring taxes" with a fairer system if the Lib Dems won power in Scotland in May. | |
Whitehall is already considering a UK-wide road pricing scheme. | |
But it has met with significant opposition from motorists. | |
Mr Scott last week said quicker progress was needed towards road pricing in Scotland. | |
The Shetland MSP outlined the party's position on road user pricing to the Lib Dems Scottish conference. | |
Revenue neutral | |
"Gordon Brown penalises motorists across Britain through regressive taxation that does nothing to tackle congestion and hammers the rural motorist," he said. | |
"So we would replace Brown's blunt motoring taxes with a fairer UK-wide scheme which does what it is meant to - tackle congestion and meet the challenge of climate change. | |
"It must be revenue neutral and it should mean that in all our built up areas, when there is congestion and we can invest in public transport, we will - to give people the incentive to leave the car at home. | |
"But where there is no congestion motorists should be better off because in parts of Scotland there is no choice but to use the car." | |
Although motoring tax is reserved to Westminster, a party spokeswoman confirmed it was prepared to call for power on the matter to be devolved to Scotland. |
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