Electric car owners should pay road tax

IT appears that many people don’t understand that the only way governments, whether local or national and of any political persuasion, can raise money is by taxation.

IF more financial support is required, for anything from the NHS to street lights, then that money has to be raised by taxation.

Electric vehicles use the roads, why shouldn’t the owners help pay for their maintenance through road tax? If your kids go to school, help pay for their education. More police on the streets, pay more tax.

The list of things supported by local and government funding is staggering and it all has to be paid for by some form of taxation.

The whole financial situation has been made far worse because of Covid, the war in Ukraine and the loss of the cheap labour pool brought about by Brexit, which resulted in higher wages having to be paid by employers. Employers then have to try to pass on their higher costs to customers without driving those same customers away.

For a number of years, inflation and taxation have been very low, however in the ’50s and ’60s the highest level of taxation was 90% and the basic rate was 33%.

It was successive Tory governments that reduced all levels of taxation to what we have become familiar with. Not a political statement, simply a fact. Thankfully we are not in that situation.

It is now this Government’s task to fill the massive hole in the country’s finances, a significant part of which is caused by generous support to those who need it.

Unfortunately, large amounts of government funding is also wasted by inefficiency or corruption, such as benefit fraud, and these should be a priority to stamp out.

In my opinion, the higher paid should pay more income tax than they currently do, even under the new rates. There is no sound reason that so-called media and sports ‘stars’, CEOs, etc, should be paid ludicrous amounts of money without some redress and support to those less fortunate.

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney has stated: “If I want to put any more money into a public pay deal... I have to cut public expenditure and public services.” What he should have added is... “or raise taxes.”

Of course increased taxation hurts almost everybody – but is there an alternative?

Dave Chafer Yeovil, Somerset