‘Carbon tax would paralyse road transport industry’

Carbon tax laws mooted by the
National Treasury as a means of
raising funds for social services in the
country could paralyse South Africa’s
transport industry.
Road Freight Association CEO
Sharmini Naidoo said the carbon tax
laws, according to a discussion paper,
could hurt South Africa’s transport
industry, threaten the livelihoods
of small businesses and result in
consumers paying higher prices for
services.
“We strongly feel that the road
freight industry will be severely
prejudiced by the introduction of any
carbon tax as operators are currently
paying for “clean fuel” but are the
recipients of “dirty fuel” and the oil
companies are reaping the benefits
without being penalised,” she said.
Carbon taxes came into effect for
passenger vehicles last September
and for light commercial vehicles in
March.
“We understand that Treasury has
commissioned an economic impact
study on the effect of the proposed
carbon taxes and would like to request
that the results of the study be made
available to the public for comment.”
Naidoo said freight operators that
took part in a Carbon Disclosure
Project found that, depending on fleet
sizes and fuel consumption, they would
be expected to pay around R24 million
in carbon taxes. “This would have
to be passed onto consumers as no
company would be able to absorb taxes
of this nature, thereby exacerbating the
inflationary impact and diminishing
future growth potential.”
Furthermore, Naidoo said, according
to RFA calculations, a tax of R100
per ton of carbon would result in
an increase in diesel of 26.3 cents
which amounts to a 4% increase in
fuel costs and for a large transporter
could amount to about R63 million.
“Transport operators are already faced
with rising costs and this would have a
serious impact on the cost of logistics
which would render road transport
uneconomical.”