Ministers, come clean

One aspect of the e-toll issue that has not been adequately covered is the allocation of the fuel levy currently being received by government.

As with all government revenue, the problems lie with how they spend it. So it is with the fuel levy. Only about half of it is actually spent on roads – according to the published figures. Yet the whole object of the fuel levy – as publicly stated by the ministers of finance – was to maintain and upgrade the country’s roads. If the full amount of the fuel levy were allocated to their stated purpose, there would have been no need for e-tolls.

The minister of transport’s claim that a massive increase in the fuel levy would be needed if e-tolls were scrapped is simply not true. Let the ministers of finance and transport come clean on how the fuel levy is spent; then we can see how road users, who pay the fuel levy, are being abused. Lawrence McCrystal