FLEET managers, who for months have been appealing to the Government for detailed information on the proposed autumn 2000 graduated Vehicle Excise Duty system and April 2002 company car tax system, will have to wait until the March 2000 Budget. They found no comfort in Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's pre-Budget announcement which failed to mention either of the two proposals.

While many admitted to Fleet NewsNet this week that they were resigned to playing a waiting game, the lack of any reference to either issue should have been expected, according to the Association of Car Fleet Operators, which insists the Government still does not know how they will be administered. Gradually over the last 12 months it has been announced that the VED system will categorise cars into four bands based on their carbon dioxide emissions and come into force from autumn next year. But questions remain unanswered regarding the CO2 band parameters, how much the charge for each band will be and how diesel and LPG will be judged.

Similarly with the new benefit-in-kind tax system the Government has made it clear that it will also be based on a car's list price in relation to the amount of CO2 it emits. But again questions remain. Tony Leigh, chairman of the Association of Car Fleet Operators, thought Brown would give 'some hint' on his plans so that fleet operators knew where they were going. He said: 'I doubt we will hear anything now until the Budget.' Simon Boggis, group fleet procurement manager at TNT UK and Eire, said: 'We will have to wait to see what will happen with CO2 and car taxation, but the pre-Budget announcement would have been an opportunity to say something.'