The tax disc to show motorists have paid vehicle excise duty is to be replaced with an electronic system, Chancellor George Osborne is to announce in his Autumn Statement.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25223631
I notice they manage to avoid calling it "road tax". In fact, there's a snippet from Hansard when vehicle tax was introduced in 1888 which shows how the principle behind the tax:
Chancellor George Goschen: Apart from the Carriage Tax, which is a tax mainly on the more luxurious carriages - carriages, used for pleasure - there is at present no tax on any other vehicles, however much they may destroy the roads.
We propose to put a duty of £1 a-year upon every vehicle exceeding 10 cwt. in weight, a very moderate limit to take.
Members will acknowledge that the principle that all those who use the roads should pay for them, and should pay in some proportion to the wear and tear that they cause, is just. But I have not yet exhausted the subject. We propose, also, to put a very small Wheel Tax upon every vehicle.