AA joins The Courier's drive for fuel duty regulator
The AA has backed The Courier's campaign calling for the introduction of a fuel duty regulator.
- By Stefan Morkis
- Published in the Courier : 19.01.11
- Published online : 19.01.11 @ 11.02am
Spokesman Luke Bosdet said motorists are unable to absorb the rising costs of fuel, caused by a double whammy of rising crude oil prices and tax increases.
The price of crude oil is on the rise and now hovers at around the $91 mark.
However, a litre of unleaded now costs more, around £1.30 a litre, than it did in 2008 when the price of a barrel tipped nearly $150 a barrel.
However, motorists have been hit by a series of tax rises on fuel over the past two years, so that although their fuel only costs little more than 40p per litre, the cost is three times that.
In April 2009, the duty rate on unleaded petrol went up by 1.84 pence per litre to 54.19p. It went up another 2p per litre in September that year.
A 3p per litre rise scheduled for early last year was postponed to give motorists some respite.
Instead, duty went up by 1p in April and by another penny in October.
Duty rose again on January 1 this year, by 0.76p.
Half goes to Chancellor
This latest rise means that if a driver pays £1.30 for a litre of unleaded, nearly half of that — 58.95p — goes to the Treasury in fuel duty.
Just over 40p is paid for the fuel while vendors only receive around 5p per litre.
Motorists also have to pay VAT, which rose to 20% on January 4. This added around 3.5p to the price of a litre and the total VAT paid per litre of fuel is now more than 20p.
Fuel duty is to rise again in April, putting another 3.5p on the price of a litre.
Mr Bosdet said that other countries regulate fuel and the UK should be prepared to do the same.
He said, "First off, the April 1 duty increase should be stopped simply because consumption is dropping.
"It fell by 6% in 2009 compared to 2008 and in the third quarter of last year fell by 3.5% compared to the year before."
He added, "We have reached the point where drivers cannot absorb these prices."
Cameron's pledge
Mr Bosdet said, "We are not talking about low users like students or pensioners, but workers, people who need their cars.
"The government are taking almost two-thirds of the price of fuel and the vendor also takes a cut."
He added, "That might be alright in somewhere like Dundee where you can go to a supermarket but if you are in the Highlands and Islands it's a different story."
Mr Bosdet said that a regulator would help protect motorists from unfair price rises.
He said, "What a regulator would do is to track the price at the pumps against wholesale prices and the exchange rate.
"They do it in the US and in Australia, so why not here?"
Prime Minister David Cameron committed to introduce a stabiliser to keep fuel prices under control and maintains a measure will be introduced in March, but the Treasury says this is some way off.
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