ACC promotes theft

ACC has recommended its levy fees be lifted again. Here are the recommendations for the 2005/2006 year:
* Increase the cost of the annual vehicle licensing fee by $10
* Increase the petrol levy from 5.08 to 5.77 cents per litre
* Increase the self-employed levy by 3.9 percent

Someone tell me why we need to pay more tax in our petrol to fund a motor vehicle account that reported a $221 million cash surplus - nearly three times the previous years surplus.

As for the self-employed, they are trying harder than any employer to make a buck. I should know I used to be one. ACC is biased against unemployed people as when they have a claim the compensation is based on the previous year's earnings - and if they are just starting a business, guess what they will receive in compensation. Not much. Perhaps self employed people, as a group, are not earning as much and therefore are not paying enough levies as desired. So why not increase the levies, say ACC.

If productivity is not increasing, make them pay more levies with decreasing income. And it doesn’t matter if these self-employed people are not compensated properly if they have an accident, because it's all legal.

That's ACC for you. Its plain theft, designed to prop up the ACC coffers and ACC's share portfolio. ACC, and by implication, the Government, cares more about the shareholders than it does about anyone else. I wonder how nuch the shareholders got last year, probably less than the interest made on ACC's shares thanks to the inflated levies. Let's hope the sharemarket doesn’t crash.