Road tax rises 'will leave another 5.6million drivers paying more'

Millions more car owners than previously thought will be worse off under huge rises in road tax planned by the Treasury.

Some 5.6million motorists whose pre-2001 cars have engines of 1,549cc or bigger will see the cost of a tax disc rise from £185 to £200 next April.

This is on top of the 9.4million drivers with cars registered after 2001 who will pay more due to changes in vehicle excise duty.

It means 15million more car owners overall will be paying more to use the roads from 2010.

The new figure referring to pre-2001 cars will be officially confirmed to MPs today in an answer to a Parliamentary Question.

Rebel Labour backbenchers and the Tories will seize on it as more evidence that the controversial proposals - sold as an environmental measure - are unfair.

From April, cars will be divided into 13 bands depending on their carbon dioxide emissions.

In 2009 road tax will be charged up to £440 a year for the top two bands, and £455 in 2010.

At the moment, cars bought between 2001 and 2006 are exempt from the top rates and pay a maximum £210.

Chancellor Alistair Darling's proposals sweep away this exemption, meaning some popular family models would attract far more tax, even though they may have been bought up to nine years earlier.

However, cars registered before March 2001 do not carry data on CO2 emissions, and therefore cannot be included in the 13 bands.

Instead, the Government has factored in a 'green levy' by raising vehicle excise duty at twice the rate of inflation for cars with engines of 1,549cc or bigger.

The duty is frozen at £120 a year for the 3.3million smaller-engined vehicles from the same era.

Tory treasury spokesman Justine Greening said: 'Days after Alistair Darling acknowledges he is taxing people to the limit of their endurance, fresh evidence emerges that the Government is planning inflation-busting tax rises for more motorists.'

Jon Day, an RAC spokesman, called the changes for pre-2001 cars 'unfair'.

The Treasury claims the 13 new road tax bands which affect all post-2001 cars will leave 55 per cent of motorists either paying less or the same in real terms.

Commenting on the vehicle excise duty changes for pre-2001 cars, a Treasury spokesman said last night: 'Taking account of inflation, all drivers of pre-2001 cars will still pay less than in 1997.'