Nov 05 2007
Diesel and petrol more than
Yesterday my local good value petrol station in Wokingham had sold out of diesel, as it was at least 1p a litre cheaper than others.
I reached Bicester during my travels and found one garage offering diesel 1p a lite cheaper than another. I went in and bought just about the last diesel that forecourt had on offer, choosing the one pump that did not have the "Sorry sold out" sign on it.
People are very price conscious now petrol and diesel have soared in price. More fuel is being burned as people shop around. Unfortunately we cannot shop around for a cheaper government.
When Parliament is back I will ask questions to remind people just how much of this very high price is tax. It is curious that we do not hear of Mr Darling’s plans to give us a tax reduction based on all the extra revenue he is hauling in from the petrol pumps. Could it be that he is wasting it somewhere else?
7 Responses to “Diesel and petrol more than”
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I’m confused – would you like to see the Conservatives offer a tax reduction based on increased revenue from his petrol prices?
If so (and it sounds emminently sensible) will you also be asking your party leader and shadow chancellor to consider this as a policy? And how does this fit in with the Quality of Life policy review – does it not contradict its findings?
Reply: Yes, I favour tax reductions based on the proceeds of growth which include this windfall from oil prices. I set out in “Freeing Britain to compete” the tax cuts I would like to see. I also would not have increased the rate of fuel duty this autumn, given the extra revenues coming in any way.
My father once told me the amount of tax involved in petrol and I can’t remember exactly but I think it was over 80%. I would be interested to know how much it is. And do we not pay more tax than any other country?
(Peter Hitchens is gathering statistics about road transport I think, there was mention of it and discussion of where taxes are spent – see his blog comments)
I find the ‘green’ machine completely stupid – the net effect of the western world pushing for bio fuels, for example, is that they are cutting down swathes of rainforest in order to plant crops for bio fuels. That’s like putting a bandaid on a cut and ripping out the body’s lungs to do it. Stupid. How can we stop this? They can’t sell rainforest – so don’t buy bio fuel. Duh?
In this country they could improve the public transport system so the total fuel consumption would be more efficient.
Reply: Its more than 65p of tax out of
I don’t understand why tax on diesel isn’t reduced and that on petrol increased. Diesel is more fuel efficient and so it makes sense to penalise petrol users. This will also reward the majority of business users who use diesel engines these days.
According to the below, petrol accounted for 69% of sales in 2005 (although I’m sure this has decreased).
http://reports.mintel.com/sinatra/reports/index/&letter=16/display/id=125763&anchor=a125763
Assuming a very simple split of 69% petrol and 31% diesel (ignoring other fuel types for the time being) then a cut of 20p/litre in tax could be made on diesel for about a 9p/litre increase in petrol. This would put diesel at approx. 80p/litre and petrol at 109p/litre where I live (near Wokingham!).
In addition this will encourage future sales of diesel engines and decrease our oil consumption.
Makes sense to me but I do drive a diesel!!
Reply: When I switched from petrol to diesel my average fuel consumption improved from 26 miles per gallon to almost 40 miles per gallon. That’s a big incentive for people to switch on its own.
I had a similar experience in switching from petrol to diesel. However, petrol usage still is significantly higher than diesel. I believe that part of this is because people see on the forecourt that diesel is more expensive than petrol. To encourage the use of diesel I still believe that having a cheaper headline rate will make all the difference!
Why is petrol so expensive when oil is priced in dollars, currently weak against both Sterling and the Euro!?!
Who is profiteering!?!
Reply: The government.
You pay a premium when you buy a used diesel car over a petrol car though. My 1.8 Ford Mondeo cost me
The switch to the gallon was a gift to the petrol companies and the government. When petrol went up 10p a litre there was outrage! Now when a litre goes up 2p hardly anyone complains How many litres to the gallon? 4.564 if you don’t know.