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.