The Australian Government has reduced the truck fuel tax rate, otherwise known as the road user charge, from AUD 0.2614 (USD 0.1995) to AUD 0.259 (USD 0.1977) per litre effective July 1, 2016.

The reduction was one of the recommendations in the Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA) 2016 pre-budget submission, and follows several meetings between the ATA and senior ministers. According to the ATA, the tax cut will save a typical owner-driver about AUD 200 (USD 152) in 2016-17, and a typical small fleet operator about AUD 1,100 (USD 839).

ATA Chief Executive, Christopher Melham, thanked the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon. Darren Chester MP, for working to address the ongoing overcharging faced by the trucking industry.

“The trucking industry pays for our use of the road system through heavy vehicle registration fees and a road user charge on fuel. However, the industry has been overcharged since 2007, because the system used to calculate the charges underestimates the number of trucks on our roads,” Melham said.

“The Australian, state and territory governments last year agreed to a two-year freeze in their revenue from heavy vehicle charges in response to the problem.

“The decision builds on, and goes further than, the Government’s previous decisions to freeze the road user charge rate in 2014 and 2015.”

The road user charge is imposed as a reduction in the fuel tax credits that trucking businesses can claim through the Business Activity Statements (BAS) process.