Your Comments

Every year the massive oil companies like Shell make £ billions out of selling oil.

When will they start investing this money in new, clean fuels like bioethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen, solar etc so that we can drive cars that don't destroy our environment?

I suppose at least Shell and BP both invest some money (but not much) in renewable energy. The evil people running Esso (in the USA) don't invest anything in renewable energy.

Tax is to blame, companies are supposed to make profit - I can not blame a company for that, its the government who aren't supposed to be making money, who shouldn't be using stealth taxes like this.

Bob Jones - #4

Governments have to raise money via taxation. Fuel duty is a form of taxation - albeit an unfair one as it disproportionately hurts the poor.

Why do you place such faith in the free market? Because you've done well out of it?

Who says governments "aren't supposed to be making money"? The government is often better at providing goods and services to the general population, for whatever reason. Take healthcare for example - in the US over 50 million people are without health insurance. It's disgusting.

Finally, fuel duty is not a "stealth" tax. Stop reading the tabloids. As a matter of fact, it was Major's Conservative government which first introduced Fuel Duty and the Fuel Duty Escalator back in 1993 (I think) - thereby raising Fuel Duty by 2% above inflation every year. LABOUR HAVE ABANDONED THE FUEL DUTY ESCALATOR, despite what the Daily Mail would like you to believe.

The Government needs to raise taxes. If not on fuel, then it would be applied elsewhere. I personally think that road taxes should be abolished with the revenue instead being recovered via the purchase of fuel. This would remove the need for the policing of the annual tax payments and the road user would pay at source for every mile driven. It would undoubtedly lead to the improvement in fuel economy for all new cars.

Shell, BP et al are simply reaping the rewards of the economics of supply and demand. The OPEC cartel is not artficially holding up the price of oil - they are simply unable to pump out anymore due to diminishing returns from their (mostly) old oil fields. Peak Oil is the over riding key issue behind the price of fuel. In a perverse way we are actually partly insulated in this country because of the high taxation levels. The oil price rises therefore do not gave the impact that they do elsewhere in places such as the USA.

I am a self-employed contractor working at Shell. As has already been suggested, very little of their profitability comes from selling petrol. Profitability comes from exploration, production, refining, etc.

None of us wants such visible taxation hikes, but at least we can be certain that EVERYONE driving a vehicle on the road must pay, including all the unscrupulous people who manage to evade many other forms of personal taxation.

If Government incompetence and mismanagement demands an ever-growing source of funds, then by charging us in a way we cannot evade, they are actually doing us all a favour.

the government takes too much tax from the motorist,i think we should go back to the protests that we had a few years ago.

I think people are missing the point here, why the hell should the government be able to take 67 pence of every 95 pence spent on petrol? If all industries were taxed at this rate, there would be no industry left, but the government would have loads more money to support their and civil servants pensions, loads to throw at asylum seekers and even more to waste on useless overpriced unworkable computer systems, oh a probably a couple of billion extra to throw at some third world country or other that has so much corruption the money could be going anywhere, thank you, I feel better for that!

I think Malcolm has got a good point ( 13 above) we should boycott the big companies who make a lot of profit.
It is also time we brits stood firm like they do in france and say enough is enough - after all tyhe tax raised is only going to waste on bullets for an illegal war

No-one likes to see the price of fuel going up, least of all me with cars as a hobby as well as essential travel. But at least as stated already, it is a tax that everyone has to pay even the most corrupt. The biggest issue I have is the variation in prices. Within a local 6 mile radius the SHELL price of diesel is presently between 98.9 and 102.9, which is an 18p a gallon difference...WHY? I also agree that they should scrap the car tax and put it on fuel instead, which could close a then unnecessary government department and save a small fortune in policing.
The government should also get streamlined and get its act in order...if a private company tried to run the way they do, it would be out of business in months?! They would save a small fortune and would not have to think up new ways to hit the motorist in order to keep them all in there Jags and pay their ludicrous expenses etc.

With fuel prices escalating does that mean the govt are going to improve/susidise public transport in rural communities to allow those of us who have to use cars to get about with an alternate option of getting to and from work etc it seems to me that they take all this tax improve the infrastructure around large cities to please the majority by giving them improved facilities with the option to travel in their cars or use public transport and those of us who live in rural communities have to go on suffering the expense

In answer to those who believe that it's not the forecourt that is making profit - of course that is true for Independents, but since the Big Producers have a monopoly in the business they can choose where the profit is made. One of their biggest cons! True the Tax is also excessive but the Oil Companies are manipulating at the highest level. Watch how they distribute high and low price areas to give the illusion of competition. Watch how with the current strategy of pushing prices through the £1 psychological barrier they limit supplies to the cheaper stations. Last weekend almost every place I visited with prices under £1 per litre was out of fuel and only offering premium grade. Wake up Britain we are being ripped off at the highest level. Food prices are affected by fuel costs - The Oil Barons and Incompetant Government are the only winners. Tax benefitting the Environment? Only a complete idiot would fall for that line. They just waste it all!

Landslide corporate profits for companies involved in the oil industry are unfortunately the norm today. The only response an average consumer can have is to make their representatives aware and take careful consideration on where they buy their petrol. Check your local markets, and share the word on where the prices are better. There are a new crop of websites dedicated to monitoring the prices in local areas.

-John

Can someone please explain to me why is it that when oil goes up the garages are quick to follow suite, yet oil has dropped at least 6-8 dollars a barrel in th last week yet the prices at the pump still seem to be going up.??

Surely someone should be keeping watch on this??? Last night at Shell in Fourwent Ways i paid 111.9 for VSHELL (Dont shout, i prefer VSHELL), this used to be about 103 before the OIL prices rocketed in early October.

Or should i just keep quite as the true price increase has not really hit the pumps as yet.

In reply to comment 27. OK so you pay a little more for fuel but just remind me what yopur personnal taxation levels are. And are you not all millionaires related to the Gibb family - I'd be a bit more worried by whats fuelling your gene pool than your car.

It looks like the government get the biggest slice of the cake (to help pay for our worldclass welfare system etc........), Shell and the Garage owner take a much smaller slice but seem to be able to make profits from other activities (Shell from production/exploration etc, and the Garage owner from Shop itself).

That sounds fair enough (sort of...) to me, where none of the parties above have very much control is when demand goes through the roof or supply gets tightened, the consequence of which takes us out of our financial comfort zone when we have to fill up at the pumps every month.

If you are at all like me, you will do whatever you can to avoid relying on public transport, I rely on my car for my job. I have taken 3 steps to mitigate as much as possible the financial impact of filling up -

1. Always use petrolprices.com to find out which garage is cheapest (there is always at least 1 Shell garage level pegging with a Supermarket)

2. Register for Shell Advantage Points card (select the Fuel Voucher option), you can link more than one card to the same household, so i've linked my wife's card to my account. What that means is that because we jointly buy more than 200 litres of fuel a month we get 2p back for every litre purchased

3. We have also taken out a joint Shell Mastercard from Citi (bank), if you put aside the introductory offer of 6% back on Shell fuel purchase for the 1st 2 months, the regular cash back rebate on Shell fuel purchase is 3% (+ 1% on anything else you buy in the shops). Now I am not a fan of credit cards & this is the only one I own, however I am comfortable using it like a debit card (I load it up with my anticpated fuel spend for the month, so as never to be in debit)

The cumulative effect of all 3 actions is that we are paying an effective price of 5p cheaper a litre than you would if you just went to the cheapest garage in my area & up to 10p cheaper than the more expensive garages.

Re. the 3rd point - I am in no way recommending you take a credit card out. Cards can be very damaging to your health if used irresponsibly.

My 1st post, and i'm trying to be constructive so please go easy with the comments....

Excuse my ignorence,but why are we paying duty and VAT on fuel I thought duty and VAT were the same? also why is diesel more expensive to deliver then petrol,they come in the same tanker?don't they.

JOE