Should EV owners pay their "fair share" of road use? | The Business | ABC NEWS

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Infrastructure Partnerships Australia is the latest to convene its own roundtable looking at specific measures to increase the tax take, setting its sights on the introduction of a road user charge for electric vehicles.
The think tank's chief executive, Adrian Dwyer, says the plan is to modernise the system so everyone who uses the road pays their "fair share". Currently, drivers pay about 51 cents a litre in fuel excise when they fill up at the petrol or diesel bowser, but that excludes EV drivers. Under the distance-based road user tax proposal, which Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has long called for, EV drivers would pay around five cents per kilometre to use the road.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia invited key players in Australia's transport industry, including the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), and Transurban to its roundtable, but the Electric Vehicle Council told the ABC they weren't invited. Mr Dwyer wouldn't be drawn when asked why the Electric Vehicle Council wasn't invited to the high-level talks.
As more people take up electric vehicles in Australia, the fuel excise revenue stream, which accounts for around $15-16 billion annually in the federal budget, is in terminal decline. Mr Dwyer says the road user charge proposal is a "fairness issue about who pays for roads, but also a revenue issue".
Mr Dwyer says similar schemes are already in place in New Zealand and the US, which have increased EV uptake in those countries. But the Electric Vehicle Council says a road tax in other countries has hindered the uptake of EVs.
Mr Dwyer says he believes the main reason for EV uptake hesitancy in Australia is distance anxiety, and says the tax would create revenue for more EV charging stations in regional areas.
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