Victoria EV road tax decision: Are refunds on the way?

In a day of High (Court) drama, the Victorian Roads User Charge (RUC) – perhaps better known as the “EV Tax”, or the “world’s worst EV policy” – was struck down as invalid due to being “a duty of excise within the meaning of s90 of the Constitution”. 

Much has already been written on the reasoning for that decision, and much has also yet to flow from the decision. Vicroads in fact has already put a notice on their website stating they will be contacting all electric and plug in hybrid car customers directly to explain what the decision means and what any next steps might be. 

It would seem though they are prioritising those EV owners whom Vicroads have more directly impacted, if the phone call I received from a Vicroads employee barely 4 hours after the decision is anything to go by. 

According to the caller, Vicroads are now prioritising contacting those EV owners who had made complaints to the Victorian Ombudsman (including myself) to let them know of the decision (as if we had not heard!).

As part of the conversation, the caller also said there will be a process put in place to refund the charges. That came as a surprise (especially given the comment by Allens-Linklaters partner Adrian Chek in today’s earlier article here at TheDriven that refunds were highly unlikely).

As a result, I had to ask how and when that might happen. However, no timeline was given – although the caller did say it was definitely going to occur.

The caller also said please do not call Vicroads any time soon to find out how the refund process would happen – instead continue to check the Vicroads website as it will be updated as soon as a process for refunds has been put in place.

Another owner I spoke to had a similar call, and we will just have to wait and see if any refunds occur, and how long it takes, as well as find out if part or all of it is returned. Hopefully, any refunds will be as quick as their 8 week grace period on registration suspension if you did not pay their calculated RUC amount …

I would also be interested to see how quickly Vicroads are getting to other affected Victorian EV owners. Have had one other verified so far, so they are getting onto it pretty fast. If/when you do get the call, please post a note in the comments section.

Note: The Victoria government’s official line is that there is no decision on refunds. “We’re disappointed with the outcome but accept the court’s ruling. We will take time to consider the judgment,” was the sole comment from a spokesman.

The road user charge raised $3.9 million in 2022/23. In 2021/22 it raised $1.2 million.