by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Kent-based freight experts are calling on the Chancellor to abandon plans for another inflation-busting tax hike.

The Freight Transport Association, based in Tunbridge Wells, argues that a 3.5p duty rise would heighten the misery felt by transport businesses at a time of rising fuel costs triggered by convulsions in North Africa and the Middle East.

Fuel has risen to around $120 a barrel, and there are forecasts that it could hit $200 if there is further unrest in the Gulf States.

Fuel duty accounts for more than half the cost of a tank of diesel, with a 1p rise leaving the haulage industry with a £450 million additional fuel bill.

FTA chief economist Simon Chapman said: "Political instability in other countries and the impact this has on the price of a barrel of oil is beyond the Chancellor's control. However, the level of tax he then heaps on top of it is certainly not.

"The planned fuel duty hike is simply a revenue raising ruse. It offfers no benefit to the economy, serving only to push up costs and inflation, and erode competitiveness.

"The freeze in fuel duty in April which FTA has asked for, will help check rising prices and improve cash flow for businesses."

The FTA is also urging the Chancellor in his March 23 Budget to announce a lorry road user charge to address the uneven playing field between domestic and foreign hauliers.