Our dear government is receiving hundreds of millions of pounds in extra taxation as a result of rising fuel prices, two business groups have stated. The extra income is enough that it should scrap the 2p-per-litre rise in fuel duty scheduled for October. .
Whilst Business organisations whiter on about the detail (mostly accurately) the cost of motoring, a key factor in our (or any developed nation's) economy continues to increase.
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The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) claims that higher than predicted North Sea oil prices have boosted the government's tax proceeds by £390 million since 1 April. It adds that soaring prices at the pump have netted VAT income of £115 million more than predicted, constituting a total windfall of £505 million.
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According to accountants Grant Thornton, which provided figures to both the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), deferring October's fuel duty increase until April 2009 would cost the government £550 million. "High fuel prices are crippling small business owners in every sector and in every area of the country," said FSB National Chairman John Wright. "Apart from the immediate extra costs to motorists of filling up at the pumps, spiraling petrol prices also have a knock-on effect on everybody in terms of more expensive food and consumer goods." Calling for the introduction of an 'automatic adjuster' for fuel duty, Wright added: "A mechanism which automatically uses extra oil tax revenue to reduce fuel taxes would be an efficient, effective and fair way of delivering some relief to motorists of all kinds."
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Well it is nice to see Mr Wright getting some meaningful publicity; but to what effect? During the high profile peoples fuel campaign of 2000 when vehicle fuel taxation was on the firmly on the political agenda Mr Wright, then Chairman of the Teesside Branch did not want to put his head above the parapet for fear of upsetting his Labour Party friends (details on request from the editor). But that was then; now the FSB has joined in the fuel price winge, but far to late to have any meaningful effect.
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BCC director-general David Frost who has for some time been a pain the the side of the Labour Government accurately said: "With the Treasury estimates on [its fuel tax income] woefully out of line with reality, this £505 million windfall in less than two months must surely rule out the 2p rise scheduled for October."
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However as we have stated before on this blog the motorist and particularly the business motorist will continue to pay ever increasing amounts for vehicle fuel; the greenies will continue to whinge about CO2 immersions adding to global warming when in fact the planet is cooling not warming and business organisations will continue to 'lobby' to little effect whilst the economy continues to both slow down and inflate. So all in all nothing new to report other than the cost of vehicle fuel has risen by more that 25 per cent in the past 6 months and almost without murmer we are paying up.
1 comment:
Unfortunately, as long as the gasoline/ petrol companies are making huge profits and the tax collector is getting his cut, our petrol/gasoline prices are going to rise. The greeies can complain on they want to but they have as yet to come up with an suitable alternative or even to use something other than buses or vehicles of some type to get to their protest spots. The prices in the US are also on the rise and they are fast going to match those of the UK and Europe. We really are in a catch-22 situation of our own making. Unless we each decide to somehow come up with a viable solution that works for everyone we are, unfortuantely, all in the same boat. We are going to go broke paying for our petrol and all products that need petrol in some form or another to get us to where we are going.
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