Are trucks paying the toll road charge twice?

Linfox has launched a test case to clarify the term ‘public road’ in the Fuel Tax Act 2006 to ensure that heavy vehicles are claiming the correct number of fuel tax credits on fuel used for business activity.
The test case is limited to a challenge on a very narrow area of the legislation, section 43-10(3) of the Fuel Tax Act 2006, which states:
“To the extent you acquire… fuel to use, in a vehicle, for travelling on a public road, the amount of your fuel tax credit is reduced by the amount of the road user charge for the fuel.”
The term ‘public road’ is not defined in The Act and is critical to the application of the road user charge that is used to fund government repairs to public highways.
Currently, a truck travelling on a toll road pays the road user charge for this journey, even though toll road repairs are not funded by the government. The Commissioner of Taxation takes the view that a toll road is a public road for the purposes of applying the road user charge. Linfox estimates that 10% of its journeys use a toll road.
Consulting with the Commissioner of Taxation on this issue, the parties agreed that a court judgement would be the best way to clarify this issue.
To illustrate its case, Linfox is contending that the M2 toll road in New South Wales does not meet the description ‘public road’ and therefore the company has been incorrectly reducing the amount of fuel tax credits it has been entitled to through applying the road user charge.
If successful, Linfox will be entitled to seek a refund of any fuel tax credits that have been under-claimed. The decision would also mean that any other taxpayers using fuel on any roads that do not meet the term ‘public road’ would also be eligible for refunds.
This is a case no doubt all truck operators will be watching closely.