The Christchurch City Council wants district and city councils to be given the authority to create fuel taxes. A new bill limits the ability to regional councils.

The Christchurch City Council wants the Government to widen new fuel tax laws to allow city and district councils to introduce the tax, not just regional authorities.

The Government is proposing new legislation to allow regional fuel taxes to be introduced across New Zealand. Auckland would be the first region to introduce a 10 cent per litre tax under the legislation. The tax would be available to other regions from January 2021.

The Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill proposes the tax be introduced at a regional level, rather than at district and city council level.

In a submission on the bill, Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said allowing a fuel tax only at a region-wide level limited the ability for territorial authorities in growing urban areas to effectively meet their infrastructure needs.

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"The council encourages the select committee to acknowledge that urban areas outside of Auckland are also in need of funding assistance and alternative revenue tools."

The council wants to introduce a fuel tax to help it repair earthquake-damaged roads and has asked for the community's views on this and other alternative sources of funding, during consultation for its 10-year budget, the Long Term Plan.

A 4c a litre tax on petrol and diesel in Christchurch would raise at least $15 million annually, based on the 500 million litres of fuel purchased in Christchurch each year.

The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes have so far cost the council $3.6 billion and another $4b needs to be spent during the next 30 years to return the city's assets to their pre-earthquake condition, a Deloitte report found. The council estimated it would take more than 20 years to get the city's roads into a condition in line with other New Zealand cities, under existing levels of funding.

Christchurch ratepayers face a 5.5 per cent rate increase for the 2018-19 year. This is on top of seven years of rates increases averaging 6.7 per cent each year.

The submission said provision of transport infrastructure was provided for and funded by territorial authorities, not regional councils. A fuel tax would enable the council to reduce the pressure on the general rates burden while also providing much needed funding to its infrastructure programme.

Council head of planning and strategic transport David Griffiths said the scope of the bill largely focused on the needs of Auckland, so the council's submission asked the select committee to acknowledge Auckland was not the only area in need of tools to build and maintain infrastructure.

Environment Canterbury (ECan) strategy and planning programme manager Samantha Elder said the Government's proposal envisaged regional councils working closely with their Regional Transport Committee partners, which included district and city councils, to develop and manage any regional fuel tax.

She said ECan understood the city council's concerns and appreciated the importance of region-wide alignment through the Regional Transport Committees.

"It is important that the final legislation is suitable for large, diverse regions such as Canterbury."

Transport Minister Phil Twyford said in February that the Government would not allow any other region to introduce a fuel tax during Labour's first term in office, but he did not rule out regional authorities applying after that time.

The law is expected to pass in June, ready for a fuel tax to be put in place in the Auckland region from July 1.