Carbon tax for truckers looks inevitable

Government’s piece-meal carbon-tax “cherry-picking” of the transport industry does not carry an equitable label and could make the initiative seem suspicious, says Tony Twine, senior economist with financial intelligence firm Econometrix. “If you go to the freight industry, next up it will be the maritime industry and then air travel as well, with industry by industry slowly being subjected to carbon tax, and that is not fair on downstream users of the economy,” he said. The freight and maritime industry is currently not subject to taxation but Twine said that National Treasury had made it clear that it intended expanding the base of carbon taxation. Ricco Shepperson of SA Truck Bodies said its trailermanufacturing company had not been affected thus far by the current carbon taxes. Gerald Naidu of South African Inland Logistics (SAIL) said there was concern among some in the industry over taxation when purchasing new vehicles. However SAIL had been looking at ways to go green at its warehouse through design and efficient use of lighting. Tony Gaspar, the group export manager for Clover, could not divulge details but said a carbon strategy was in place.