Scots MPs back rebate
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• Scotland's Transport Minister, Sarah Boyack, is under pressure from Scottish MPs to introduce an essential user rebate on diesel for hauliers.
The Scottish National Party, the main opposition in Scotland, has accepted that hauliers are being driven out of business by Continental rivals using cheaper fuel—it wants the Scottish parliament to take action.
Boyack has already said that Road Haulage Association proposals for a rebate will be considered. But in a written answer she has promised that proposals will be referred to the Treasury "if linked to the taxation system".
Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, says: "The SNP is calling on the minister to live up to her word, look at the proposals, and give our truckers a fighting chance in their own nation."
RHA Scottish regional director Phil Flanders says the Scottish parliament already has the power to give rebates to bus operators: "There's nothing to say they can't look at a rebate for hauliers. It would have to come out of the budget they have."
• A Scottish lawyer campaigning to stop farmers carrying Out general haulage with rebated red diesel now wants every agricultural tractor used on the public highway to be subject to an annual MoT test.