The Senate should pass government amendments to the fuel tax credits system as part of reintroducing fuel tax indexation, the ATA said in its submission on fuel tax indexation to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee.
The Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2014, the Customs Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill 2014, the Fuel Indexation (Road Funding) Special Account Bill 2014 and the Fuel Indexation (Road Funding) Bill 2014 would, if passed, implement the Australian Government’s budget decision to reintroduce fuel tax indexation.
As the ATA has pointed out, the reintroduction of indexation would not increase the net fuel tax on heavy truck operations because of the fuel tax credits system.
The submission identifies two potential technical issues with the reintroduction of fuel tax indexation:
- the arrangements in the Fuel Tax Act for quarterly BAS payers after 1 July 2015 and
- a provision in the Act that would have made it problematic for the Government to adjust the road user charge on 1 August rather than 1 July, to reduce the number of changes to the fuel tax credit rate in a year.
The ATA raised these issues after the Budget with the ATO through the Fuel Schemes Stakeholder Group and Treasury. As a result of the ATA’s advocacy, the Fuel Indexation (Road Funding) Bill 2014 addresses both these issues.
The Senate Economics Legislation Committee held public hearings on the bills on Wednesday 2 July 2014.
