Government's Road Tax Policy Slammed by RAC

The government's plan to forego its proposed 2p increase to road tax has been criticised by motorists' group the RAC Foundation.

According to the body, scrapping the tax plans is a "populist" move, which will be dwarfed by other increases to the cost of driving which have been backed by the government. The RAC Foundation claimed that an extra £2 billion will be levied from road users by 2011 - four times the amount that the 2p rise would have brought in.

Around £1.2 billion of this total is to come from increases to vehicle excise duty - which have also been slammed by drivers' groups for being unfairly high. The body also claimed that the proportion of total public additional revenues which come from motoring taxes will increase from 60 to 90 per cent from 2009 to 2011.

Additinally, the RAC Foundation said the government currently takes four times as much from the motorist as it spends on the roads - £31.2 billion compared with £8.2 billion. Its director, Stephen Glaister, added: "The chancellor may pull a populist rabbit out of the hat by scrapping the October 2p rise, but this will be a drop in the ocean compared to his plans to take an extra £2 billion from the road user's pockets by 2011."