According to the Telegraph, the civil servant reportedly posted on X: “The obvious answer is to find another tax so electric motorists keep paying their share.
“But electric vehicles don’t use special electricity that you can tax. And a purchase or a registration tax won’t restrain gridlock.
“So you need some kind of per-mile cost. And that leads you back to road pricing. The principle is you pay a small fee for every mile you drive. Just like you effectively do through fuel taxes today.
“In the fancier versions, you adjust the prices so you pay less on empty roads and more on busy ones.”
The Treasury is facing a £25billion shortfall in public finances directly as a result of motorists switching to electric cars.
This is because motorists do not pay any Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) charges and are not splashing out on fuel duty when they top-up.
EV owners are set to face Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates from April 2025 but a per-mile fee could help bridge the loss of revenue.
However, the civil servant predicted any pay-per-mile scheme would likely be unpopular among motorists.
A recent poll from Go Compare found over half (53 percent) of British drivers were against the introduction of a pay-per-mile system, while a similar 52.82 percent felt a per-mile charge would be “used as a way of increasing tax”.
Meanwhile, 51,89 percent said it would be “unfair to those who have to drive more” with 51.45 percent claiming it would make road tax “too complicated”.
Instead, the civil servant suggested a tax could be introduced to future buyers of electric cars only, meaning early adopters would not face fees.
However, they stressed decisions had to be made quickly with the opportunity to introduce fees slowly fading.
They added: “There’s a perfect ‘window’ for doing this – plenty of EV sales, but not many EVs already on the road. It’s well above my pay grade. People like me exist to deliver the will of elected governments, not second-guess it.
“The only thing I will say is that the UK will be firmly outside that window by 2029. So, whatever the choice, the new Government will be the one making it.”
