Views sought on road user charges

The National Transport Commission is appealing to interested parties in the road transport industry to offer their opinions on the annual adjustment to road user charges on fuel for heavy vehicles.

The views offered will help inform the NTC and the Government when it examines setting road user charges on fuel for heavy vehicles for the 2015-16 financial year.

The NTC says its draft recommendation is that the heavy vehicle road user charge should increase by 0.6 per cent from July 1 this year, effectively raising the charge to 26.3 cents per litre. However, this is still subject to the approval of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Warren Truss, who has asked the NTC to conduct a 60-day formal consultation process.

Paul Retter, CEO of the NTC, has urged stakeholders to have their say.

"We are consulting with Australia's transport industry and other stakeholders before providing our final recommendation for consideration by the minister," he said.

Last week the Australian Trucking Association urged the Government to continue with its freeze on the road user charge, stating that a faulty model of counting the numbers of trucks on Australia's roads has led to the industry being overcharged for years.

The request came as a part of the ATA's pre-Budget submission.

"The industry has been overcharged since 2007 because this system underestimates the number of trucks on the road," said ATA CEO, Stuart St Clair, last week.

"In 2014-15, the trucking industry was overcharged by more than $200 million.

"The independent body responsible for setting the road user charge, the National Transport Commission, last year recommended changes to the way this charge is calculated to eliminate over-recovery.

"The state transport ministers put off implementing the NTC recommendations until 2016, although the Australian Government acknowledged the over-recovery and decided to freeze the road user charge in 2014-15.

"The trucking industry is still being overcharged. As a result, the Government should continue to freeze the road user charge until this overcharging has been addressed."

Submissions on the NTC's consultation report can be lodged until April 17. Click here for more information and here to view the report.