A key infrastructure lobby group has called for road taxes such as registration to be scrapped in favour of charging motorists for each kilometre they drive, just ahead of the release of the long-awaited Henry tax review.

Treasury secretary Ken Henry hinted last October that his tax review would recommend an overhaul of Australia's road charges.

Dr Henry estimates road congestion, or what he calls the "tragedy of commons", costs about $9 billion a year and will rise to $20 billion in a decade.

At the time he raised the prospect of a congestion tax to discourage people from driving during peak times.

The executive director of Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), Brendan Lyon, says all existing road taxes - including registration, licensing fees and the fuel excise - could be abolished and replaced with a per-kilometre charge for motorists.

"[That would mean] moving to a three-tier pricing system, moving to a more efficient way of collecting tax charges across our transport network, bringing a fairer, more equitable system," he said.

According to IPA's calculations, the average motorist would pay about 8 cents for every kilometre they drove.

Driving during peak times in a metropolitan centre would cost more but the charge would be less if motorists ventured out during off-peak times.

Mr Lyon says an IPA paper has looked at what motorists would pay per kilometre now for a number of typical journeys in Sydney and Melbourne.

"That has shown that the average price for motorists under the status quo with the congestion road network is around 12 cents or more per kilometre," he said.

"So we are in fact talking about lower costs for motorists."

He says Australia could raise an additional $4 billion per annum for investment in transport infrastructure under that system.

The Henry tax review will be released on Sunday.

You can view detailed coverage of the Henry Review from 2:30pm AEST at ABC News Online this Sunday.

From 5:00pm you can hear a special report on the overhaul as chief political correspondent Lyndal Curtis and economics correspondent Stephen Long analyse the tax plan and detail business and community reaction. This special will be streamed on ABC News Online and broadcast on ABC News Radio.