Tax on Diesel - Governments own figures.

[davedee]

As showing on teletext at the moment:

Before tax,Britain has the cheapest diesel in western europe.

After tax,Britain has the dearest diesel in western europe.

In April,58% of the total cost of 1 litre of diesel went to the treasury pushing the cost up from 48.8p to 116.6p.

These are the governments' own figures.

SHAMEFUL !!!!

Dave.

 

[Lutz]

To put the statement into perspective, one must not forget that car tax on diesel cars is appreciably higher than for cars with petrol engines in many European countries. (It's over twice as much here in Germany). So, you've got to be careful what you are comparing.

 

[davedee]

Sorry Lutz,but I wasn't comparing petrol prices.I was stating that the UK taxes diesel more heavily than the rest of europe.

As a caravanner (t/a) I am only concerned with the price of diesel and, as such,my statement was already in perspective.

Dave

ps Off to the pub now.......walking !

 

[joeby]

on the news the other morning , when the truck drivers were protesting , the news reader was interviewing a driver and they said they had just filled the tank ,and it cost

 

[Oldfogey]

Unfortunately the fuel companies are now realising that the public will pay these prices (and more) without noticeably cutting consumption.

So if the Government took 10p off the tax per litre, the price (after an initial drop) would rapidly rise again, but this time that 10p would be in the hands of the oil industry, its directors, and shareholders.

Meantime the Government has increased the tax on beer to cover it's loss of revenue......

As the Gov. have been finding recently, it is always wise to take a reality check before taking action.

 

[Lutz]

Dave & Dee, I was just trying to explain why the tax on diesel is lower on the Continent. It is lower because the road tax is higher.

The result is that, depending on what model you drive and what your annual mileage is, overall, the diesel can still be more expensive to run than petrol, even though diesel fuel is cheaper.

 

[joeby]

the diesel is cheaper in France , and they do not have road tax , also read in the Express that this goverment wastes a

 

[ProfJohnL]

Motoring provides a very substantial part of the governments finance plans, and it represents a significant proportion of the revenue it collects.

There have been several studied that have come to the conclusion that the motorist accept that fuel prices will increase, and they will absorb modest increases and not radically change their driving habits. The governments 2p per litre tax increase schedule was based on this premise. However the rate of increase has recently been much greater than expected due to speculation of the fuel a and futures markets and motorists and hauliers are now seeing massive price jumps.

It is likely that the government will postpone its next proposed 2p increase, but due to the increased costs of the fuel, they are already collecting more from the VAT element of the fuel revenues, so they do not HAVE to ramp up the duty to meet their revenue plans.

Due to Govt' policy diesel was taxed more to give rise to about a 2p per litre differential over petrol. (purely a political decision) We are now seeing differentials of 5 to 8p on the same forecourt, This is in the hands of the oil companies and I cannot see any justification for this. However diesel engines are still substantially more fuel efficient than their petrol equivalents, and so it is still more economical to run a diesel on the basis of consumption.

Because of the UE laws, each member state has its own tax raising powers. It is not possible to make direct comparisons between fuel prices between member states. because of the different levies each state applies. You need to look at whole motoring costs and taxes not just fuel levies.

 

[weejock]

Whilst I hate fuel price increase as much as the next person the arguement of the goverment recieving extra vat on its sales is not as clear as some are making out due to the fact that buisness users will be claiming the vat back.

I would think that all the company cars, vans, lorries, trucks, taxis etc that are on our roads use a very significant amount of the total fuel used,

 

[GrahamSouthBrum]

John Said

"Due to Govt' policy diesel was taxed more to give rise to about a 2p per litre differential over petrol. (purely a political decision) We are now seeing differentials of 5 to 8p on the same forecourt, This is in the hands of the oil companies and I cannot see any justification for this."

I travel around the country quite a bit & the garage forecourts that I pass have differentuals at least 12p/litre

 

[ProfJohnL]

Whilst I hate fuel price increase as much as the next person the arguement of the goverment recieving extra vat on its sales is not as clear as some are making out due to the fact that buisness users will be claiming the vat back.

I would think that all the company cars, vans, lorries, trucks, taxis etc that are on our roads use a very significant amount of the total fuel used,

Hi

Even allowing for the business users reclaiming VAT back, the element of profit the retailer makes is still generating extra VAT revenue due to inflation.

 

[ProfJohnL]

John Said

"Due to Govt' policy diesel was taxed more to give rise to about a 2p per litre differential over petrol. (purely a political decision) We are now seeing differentials of 5 to 8p on the same forecourt, This is in the hands of the oil companies and I cannot see any justification for this."

I travel around the country quite a bit & the garage forecourts that I pass have differentuals at least 12p/litre

Hi Graham,

I based my post on comparing standard grades of fuels rather than standard to super grades, where the differentials can be substantially more.

whilst I don't discount the possibility that somewhere there are 12p differentials on standard grades, at the moment from my experience (Walsall/Staffordshire area) that is exceptional rather than the norm.

 

[ShadySadie]

Every person in th UK is being robbed by our theiving government with the cost of diesel. As a business and private buyer of fuel the cost of diesel in the UK is Robbery.

For our land mass and head count we have more cars per head then virtualy any other country and pay premium prices for our veicles compared to most of Europe and the USA and many other countries.

12 pence a litre more than unleaded is a scandal, when compared to the fact that unleaded is more expensive in most countries we should all be blocking roads along with truck operators.

 

[grahamgreatbarr]

There is a petition that we can sign, wether it is of any use who knows, but have a go :- http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Lowerduty30/

cheers graham.