Millions lost through road tax evasion
Nearly five percent of road users avoided taxing their vehicles in the last financial year, costing the Government hundreds of millions of pounds.
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) that looked at revenues from vehicle excise duty revealed that the number of road users that avoided paying the tax increased to 4.5% – up from 3.9% in 1999.
The NAO told Parliament that this cost the Government £200million in lost revenue, although the figure is dwarfed by the £4.6 billion worth of vehicle excise duty that was collected.
Efforts to counter the problem of evasion by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which administers the tax, are ongoing and include wheel clamping and automatic number-plate reading equipment. The NAO said that these meausures brought in £69 million in revenue through fines during the period, and an estimated £41 million from the deterrent effect.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, commented: ‘It is clear that the DVLA continues to recognise the importance of tackling the evasion of vehicle excise duty. But evasion levels are rising and there remains considerable scope for anti-evasion measures to be extended and deployed in a more coherent manner, in particular through the more widespread use of automatic number-plate readers and increased collaboration with local authorities and police forces.’
