COMPANY car fleets are likely to decline as increasing benefit-in-kind taxation and increasing operating costs through road pricing and taxation of business parking see leasing and private ownership expand, according to a new report. 'Business Forecasts for the Motor Trades to 2002' by James Morrell published by investment banking group Charterhouse is traditionally anti company car and suggests that the tax take from company cars was 'well below the Inland Revenue's expectations'.

Such speculation was refuted by an Inland Revenue spokeswoman said: 'We are confident that we are getting the yield from company car taxation which we expect.' But Morrell said: 'I think the Inland Revenue is reviewing the taxation of the private use of business cars. They are finding they are missing a lot of money.'

The report also repeats historic data that £1 billion a year is lost through abuses of the car tax regime, a statistic which was rubbished by senior fleet industry figures when it was first published almost two years ago. The report also says that surveys carried out in 1995 for the Department of Transport indicated that 48% of company car drivers travelled less than 2,500 business miles a year whereas only 10% reported to the Inland Revenue that they drove a lower mileage.