AA slams road pollution tax
New pollution-linked road taxation is very unpopular among drivers, the AA has claimed.A new poll of the association's members shows that 82 per cent believe that road tax is "stealth tax" - and that 56 per cent want to see Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), which groups cars into pollution bands and then levies them accordingly, stopped.The survey also found that 59 per cent believe the government's decision to backdate VED to 2001 is unfair, while 35 per cent do not understand the new taxes.Commenting on the results, AA president Edmund King said: "We have called it a mean tax rather than a green tax. We believe that the retrospective nature of the tax increases for cars registered between 2001-6 should be scrapped before it becomes a '10p tax on wheels'." He added: "The government should also provide more user-friendly information to inform car buyers of changes to VED over the next two years. Our concern is that people may be buying cars today that they may not know will fall into much higher bands in 2009 and 2010."
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