The government is seeking feedback from the public on a proposal to increase the fuel excise duty by between nine and 12 cents a litre over three years.

This was proposed in the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport released on Tuesday, and includes an equivalent increase in road user charges paid by diesel and heavy vehicles.

'We have paid for our land transport system using fuel excise duty since 1927 and using road user charges since 1977,” says Transport Minister Phil Twyford.

'Money raised from these charges can only be spent on the land transport system, so it is important that people have a say on how much is paid and what it is spent on.”

He says the proposed increase of between three and four cents a year over the next three years are comparable with increases under the previous government, with charges going up by three cents a year in 2009 and 2010, two cents in 2012 and three cents again in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

'The estimated average cost of three cents a litre extra for a driver of an average car filling up a 50 litre tank once a fortnight is around 75 cents a week or $39 a year,” says Phil.

'The funding increase will go toward a 42 per cent increase in spending on local road improvements, a 96 per cent increase in spending on regional roads and a 22 per cent increase in local road maintenance along with an 81 per cent increase in road safety and demand management.”

He says National Party leader and former Transport Minister Simon Bridges was actively considering raising fuel excise duty further than this increase to pay for ‘Roads of National Significance'.

'To now suggest a National government wouldn't have raised this duty is fantasy.”

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller says the government's plan will mean local families pay more at the pump, and see less for it.

'The money raises will go into the Land Transport Fund, which will be opened up to be used by Kiwirail for the first time.

'To give some context, they plan to use $4 billion of the money to pay for trains and trams in Auckland, and only $800 million to improve safety on our regional roads.”

He says the increase is a ‘regressive tax' that will hurt low income families.

'It's going to hurt our businesses and primary producers, and it's going to hurt our rural communities who have less access to public transport.

'It's entirely disingenuous from a government who were very clear 10 days out from the election when they said there would be no new taxes or levies introduced in their first term of government beyond those they had already announced.”

More information on the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport and how to make a submission can be found here.