The IWA has welcomed last week's red diesel announcement
In a surprising move the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has spoken out in support of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom’s (HRMC) announcement that diesel will remain red but leisure boaters will still pay the top rate of duty, as we revealed last week.
Despite the large increase in duty to be paid, the IWA says there is some good news because boaters will still be able to use a low rate of red diesel for heating or other domestic purposes even though it may go into the same tank as the fuel used for propulsion.
According to the new guidelines, from November boaters will self certify at the point of purchase what proportion of the fuel purchased is for domestic purposes, and the vendor will charge and account for the duty due on the transaction accordingly.
John Baylis, deputy chairman of IWA’s navigation committee said, “We are pleased to see red diesel retained, as its removal would have had a serious consequence on the availability and viability of waterside refuelling businesses, and a knock on effect on the availability of fuel for boaters.”
John congratulated members of the IWA who lobbied HRMC for the domestic use rebate and continued, “This will go some way to ameliorating the impact of the cost increases and ensure that boat owners are only required to pay additional tax on diesel used for propulsion purposes rather than heating and battery charging.”
For the full IWA stance on the issue go to click here
