April 1 fuel duty hike: where does the pump price go?
31st March 2009
(Aldershot, UK) The price of a litre of fuel is set to rise by 2 pence per litre tomorrow as the latest fuel duty increase comes into force - making fuel tax a staggering 71% of the price at the pumps, according to new graphics by PetrolPrices.com.
Fuel tax is made up of a fixed duty, rising on April 1 from 52.35 pence to 54.19 pence, which is added to the raw cost of fuel, with VAT on top - currently at 15% (due to return to 17.5% in December 2009).
This means that 66 pence of the the average litre of unleaded costing 93 pence will be tax once the duty increase comes in.
Petrol retailers are unlikely to absorb the extra cost as their margins are already tight.
Here's how unleaded costing 93 pence and diesel costing 103 pence will break down as of tomorrow:
The tax hike will mean that 71 pence in every £1 spent at the pumps will go directly into a big Treasury tax revenue pot, to spent on anything the Government chooses. It doesn't have to be spent on transport.
More than 10,000 angry motorists aired their views on the PetrolPrices.com blog earlier this month.
An independent petrol station in Suffolk has cut 5 pence a litre off both unleaded in diesel to highlight the the fuel duty increases in the last 6 months, making its fuel the cheapest in the UK by 3 pence per litre.
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Notes to editors
Where possible, please link to PetrolPrices.com in online articles.
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 20p a litre.
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.
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
PetrolPrices.com
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