Brussels, 01/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - The International Road Transport Union (IRU) supports the "underlying reason" for the new proposal of directive from the European Commission aimed at gradually harmonising excise duty on commercial diesel fuel in order to prevent competition distortion between Member State road hauliers (see EUROPE of 24 July, p.9). Nonetheless, it considers in a press release, the proposal presents a number of substantial shortcomings and only applies to a small proportion of commercial vehicles. Harmonisation towards a rate of excise of 350 euros by 2010 would only apply to goods transport vehicles of over 16 tonnes or to vehicles carrying more than 9 people, which rules out 17.5 million goods transport vehicles out of 19.7 million and all taxis, stresses the IRU. It therefore calls for the "commercial rate" to be applied to all utilitarian vehicles, without distinction of weight. According to the Commission's proposal, the transport companies that are able to enjoy the "commercial rate" should first pay the higher non-commercial rate and then ask for the difference to be reimbursed through a heavy administrative procedure after which the sums recovered will hardly be proportionate to the efforts deployed, regrets the IRU.
The "Fédération des entreprises de transport et de logistique de France" has issued a release in which it welcomes the proposal of directive, which, it says, should allow the competitiveness of French companies to be secured. At the same time it encourages the French public authorities to pursue, until the directive is adopted, the French provision for partial reimbursement of the tax on petroleum products for transporters (TIPP), which should in principle come to an end in December 2002.