|
TOLL bridge operators expect to make £3,000 a day from rounding up a price increase caused by new VAT charges.
VAT of 20pc will be imposed for the first time at Dublin's toll bridges on September 1, pushing up the price for a car from 80p to 96p on the West-Link.
But the toll bridge owners plan to round this up to £1 and keep the extra 4p.
This will net them more than £1.2m a year and the 20pc VAT charge on both the West-Link and East-Link toll bridges effectively becomes a 25pc increase.
And another increase of 3 cents is on the way when the euro arrives.
Instead of converting the price to Euro C1.27 the toll will be rounded up to Euro C1.30.
"This is a penalty, not a toll," said Dermot Jewell of the Consumers Association. If the excuse for the extra increase is to make it convenient to motorists then it is an insult to drivers."
National Toll Roads are permitted through by-laws to round to the nearest 10p on the West-Link, but only to 5p on the East-Link.
Vans and buses, as well as three-axle vehicles, will be charged an extra 8p above the 20pc increase, leading to anger from all driving sectors.
The increases on the tolls at the East-Link bridge will not be as extreme. A car will now be charged 85p, which represents a 1p increase over and above the 20pc increase.
A spokesperson for National Toll Roads said that the UK government was absorbing the VAT on British toll roads, and they had asked the Irish Government to do the same here.
A National Roads Authority (NRA) spokesperson said that over time the system evens out as tolls can be rounded down as well as up.
Conor Feehan
Irish Independent August 21 2001
|
