Negative Budget
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THERE IS nothing in the Budget to help operators to start or extend bus services, and problems of local council financing and the reduction in Government transport supplementary grant to county councils might lead to a reduction in grants to some bus operators, according to Labour spokesman Lord Underhill.
Tax increases would also have a disastrous effect on rural areas, jobs, services and general living standards, he claimed in the House of Lords last week.
He told the House that various transport organisations had expressed concern at the rise in petrol and dery prices. Even be
fore the Budget the tax on dery as well as vat was higher in Britain than in most Continental countries.
Lord de Clifford (Conservative) warned that rural areas would be particularly harmed.
But Minister of State at the Treasury Lord Cockfield said it would be impossible to raise the required sums of revenue unless substantial increases of taxation were imposed on fuel.
Of the total increase of £2.5bn proposed in indirect taxes, nearly half came from the increased taxation of fuel.