2p duty delay “bowing to pressure”

16th July 2008

(Aldershot, UK) The government has bowed to mounting public and political pressure to postpone the 2p duty rise, but has not gone far enough according to PetrolPrices.com.

The announcement was made this morning – the day that the opposition planned to debate the issue in the House of Commons.

The 2p duty rise was planned for October, but has been postponed for 6 months in the face of unprecedented oil prices, above-expected inflation and the highest unemployment rates in 15 years.

This is the second time that the Chancellor has delayed a 2p duty rise. Another rise was planned to take effect from April 1 2008, but in the 2008 budget he announced it would be delayed until October.

The move means that fuel duty on all types of road fuel will stay fixed at 50.35p per litre until the 2009 budget. However, this still means the UK has the highest rate of tax in the Group of 7 Nations.

UK fuel tax is currently calculated by adding the product cost and 50.35p duty together, then adding 17.5% VAT on top. This effectively means the government are taxing a tax.

“If the Chancellor is expecting gratitude from motorists he’d better brace himself. All he’s pledged to do is not make the problem worse than it already is. What we need is a cut, and we need it now. Any modicum of credibility the Chancellor may have hoped to gain from delaying the 2p rise has been sucked out because the whole thing has been forced at the 11th hour by the prospect of a Commons debate.”

“Oil is nearing $150 a barrel, inflation is running well above target at 3.8% and unemployment is at the highest rate for 15 years. A tax cut on fuel is just the medicine the UK needs right now. If inflation gets out of control it’ll be because of high fuel prices, not because of wage increases.”

~ Brendan McLoughlin, Founder, PetrolPrices.com.

Here are the latest petrol price figures, which you can also find every week day on our homepage:

Notes to editors

Prices are updated each weekday between 11am and 12pm. Prices are collected the previous day using fuel card transactions in petrol stations to gather an average price for each station.

Petrolprices.com is the only free fuel price comparison website with reliable data and regular updates. It allows consumers to search for the cheapest stations in their area, with potential savings of 17p a litre. PetrolPrices.com has over 2.6 million registered users, and 87% of 5000 users surveyed in September 2007 claimed the site saves them over £100 per year. As fuel prices rise the potential savings grow because the spread between the lowest and highest prices stations widens.

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Louise Doherty
Spokesperson

PetrolPrices.com
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