Bus boss advocates carbon taxes

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The boss of one of the UK's biggest bus operators says green taxes should replace income tax on the poor.

In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter said it would be an effective way of alleviating poverty.

He said: "In my view we should try to take the poorest people in society out of income tax as a form of taxation and put that tax onto carbon".

He was speaking on "The Business" which will be broadcast on Sunday.

He said: "We would tax those who are creating carbon and those who aren't using carbon would be the beneficiaries, that would effectively redistribute some wealth in society".

You would tax people when they bought products that had used a lot of carbon. You'd use environmental tax and abolish the lower rates of income tax Brian SouterStagecoach

Mr Souter said his company would probably be exempt from such taxes because they were helping take people off the roads and they were taking radical measures such as using cooking oil to fuel their buses.

He said they were also looking to buy 40,000 oak trees to make some of their vehicles carbon neutral.

"You would tax people when they bought products that had used a lot of carbon," he added. "You'd use environmental tax and abolish the lower rates of income tax."

The bus operator said Scotland was a great place to do business and was pleased with the present administration and the previous one but did not want to be drawn into politics.

Constitutional change

However, he dismissed claims by CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan that a referendum on independence should be settled quickly.

"I think the question of a referendum is really one for the politicians to decide", he said.

"I think that these issues will take a long time to resolve. There are some constitutional issues surrounding what should be done long term. That's not a matter for business, it's a matter for the people to decide.

"I don't think there's a feeling of uncertainty around at the moment, the short and medium-term horizons are very clear. The longer term issue about constitutional change has been something that has always existed and there could be positives as well as negatives.

"I think business will assess it on the basis of how the public react and how the politicians make their choices. "