Price of petrol

[Everhelpful]

Petrol where I live (The North-East) has just hit the 99.9p.per Litre mark. Why don't the government reduce the tax on fuel until the crisis ends.?

[Skids]

Cos they're making a shed load of money out of commoners like you and me, while they drive round not having to pay for petrol cos our taxes pay for theirs.

[Everhelpful]

Years ago when petrol went up 2p in the Budget at 6pm.that day,there were massive queues at garages. Nobody protests or bothers there arse any more.!!

[jake-the-peg]

Fuel duty is not a percentage of the petrol cost but a flat cost.

When the price of petrol goes up the Government gets no more money and possibly a bit less because a few people will use cars less.

Given that nobody actually likes paying taxes to any government but we need to balance the books how would you pay for the drop in fuel duty?

A penny on income tax?

[Catso]

What about VAT jake-the-peg?

[Loosehead]

Yes jake there is the fuel the duty and the vat on the total. so an increase does cause a rise in vat.

You can get a GE money credit card and get 3% cash back on all fuel and grocery purchases from main outlets and that is effectively knocking 13.62p off a gallon.

however, given that the masses can still afford motoring, economically it's still far too cheap, but that's another debate!

[Catso]

If we need to raise more money, jake, I'd like to see a (hefty) tax on government. This seem like a thriving, wealthy 'business' that gets away tax-free.

[jake-the-peg]

Really Catso?

Who would be the share holders?

Oh that would be us then

Tell you what we could get government ministers on bikes, then their drivers could follow them around with their briefcases!!

[jake-the-peg]

If you really want to understand petrol prices and taxation you could look at this:

http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn55.pdf

It's the institute of fiscal studies - they conclude

Petrol prices are now at their highest level since the fuel price protests of late
2000. However, the real duty rates on diesel and unleaded petrol have not risen
since then; in real terms, duty rates are at their lowest levels for seven years and
look set to continue falling, at least whilst oil prices remain high.

They include vat and inflation in their calculations and they do point out that our fuel is the most expensive in europe

[Everhelpful]

Well how can BP justify profits of �1.4 MILLION per hour.
Is jake-the-peg happy with petrol prices,by the way.?

[Loosehead]

That's peanuts compared to what the Government take. If BP decided to give it away free it'd still be around 70p.

[qapmoc]

What makes you think that the ''fuel supply crisis'' as you call it will end in your lifetime?? In case you are not aware the world is at peak oil about NOW and that means the world is producing the most oil it will ever produce and then we will start to enter the arc of decline in fuel supplies. At the moment we are bouncing around the peak oil plateau where supply is just about keeping up with PRESENT demand, If you think the price is high now wait until there is only enough oil coming on the market for 90% of the demand and then it will be 85% then 80% etc...
If you don't know about this just google ''peak oil'' or ''energy depletion'' and do some reading.

[Everhelpful]

I'm only concerned with the CURRENT price of petrol,Thank You.

[qapmoc]

What ??? so the future is not your problem then ???