Sir, If the Government is keen to reduce congestion and emissions it should abolish road tax and VAT on motor vehicles and transfer the same to fuel (report, April 30).

That would mimic congestion charging to an extent, encourage the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles and discourage use. In contrast, taxing large cars will bear on those who legitimately need a large vehicle. Probably this misguided policy is driven by the politics of envy rather than anything else (the campaign against “Chelsea tractors” for instance). In any event, the effect on emissions will be microscopic.

Paul F. Withrington
Director, Transport Watch
Northampton

Sir, As we are faced with constant rises in car fuel and tax rates, perhaps the time is right to tax the car owner based on usage rather than ownership. We could scrap the road fund licence altogether by adding the current equivalent amount to the tax on fuel. Only then might motorists begin to question the need to buy a gas guzzler. That the Government is now lowering the break point whereby the average family car is now added to the list of targeted cars indicates that the Treasury may gradually aim to target all vehicles.

Scrapping the tax in its present state will encourage many to reconsider car usage and their choice of car model to match their needs more closely, rather than making a decision purely based on affordability.

In addition, replacing the tax disc with an insurance disc, provided by the insurance company, would perhaps be more useful when considering the number of vehicles being taken off the road because of a lack of car insurance. In any situation involving a motor vehicle, a current insurance disc clearly displayed would, I suggest, matter more to another motorist than the presence of a tax disc.

Andrew Osborne
High Buxted, E Sussex

Sir, When the higher car tax rates applied only to newly purchased vehicles, (cars registered on or after March 23, 2006) at least the car purchase was an informed decision. Now the higher rates are to apply to cars registered after March 1, 2001 the tax is being applied retrospectively to cars people have been driving for years. My older car omits 226 g/km of CO2 and from 2009 I will be paying £415 (up from £210). That’s only £25 less than the owner of a one-year-old, £1 million Bugatti Veyron.

Many lower-paid families and pensioners drive “normal” older cars registered between 2001 and 2006 that have previous generation lower-tech engines that naturally omit higher levels of CO2. These are the people who are going to be worst affected by the new £200 increase. Of course, when they try to sell their cars they will find they are worth less than expected because of the higher tax now payable on the car. The irony is that the real old “bangers” registered before March 2001 will continue to be taxed at a reduced rate. To cut the costs of motoring people will switch to these old cars with their even higher emissions.

Paul Medlam
Preston, Lancs

Sir, Being hard up, I run an old banger of a car. This monumental increase in tax will be the final straw for me as far as motoring goes. I’d like to be green but I’d quite like to eat as well.

Raymond Barr
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex

Sir, It does not make any sense, in terms of saving the planet, for car tax bands to be based solely on engine size and emissions. They must be related to annual mileage (available from the car dealer or the insurance company).

How do the emissions from my band F car (classed solely because of its 2.4 litre engine — that’s how Americans build cars) doing 7,000 miles a year compare with those of a band C car doing a more typical 20,000 miles a year or a band C salesman doing 40,000 miles?

Tom Rayfield
Chinnor, Oxon