'How much should petrol cost?' Poll discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence

Poll started 08 March 2010:

How much should petrol cost?

Petrol prices are about £1.30/litre (see cheap petrol), but roughly 80p of this is made of tax and duty, so only 50p-ish goes to manufacturers and retailers combined.

Yet remember IF PETROL TAX WAS CUT OTHER TAXES WOULD RISE shifting the burden from motorists to others – and the high taxes are encouraged by greens who believe they deter unnecessary driving.

If you were the Chancellor setting petrol prices, what would it cost PER LITRE?

50p (ie no tax)
60p
70p
80p
90p
£1
£1.10
£1.20
£1.30 (current average)
£1.40
£1.50
£1.60
£1.70
£1.80
£1.90
£2.00

Please vote here, or click 'post reply' to discuss below. Thanks

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emidee

60p - Cost + VAT, like (most) other goods.

Outside of London, it can be difficult to live without a car now - and public transport is woefully inadequate.

Victimising the motorist is simply unfair; higher taxes across the board would be a much fairer alternative.

RussWWFC

I'd set it at around 99p a litre (IE under a pound)

Savings could be made elsewhere by cutting foreign aid and reducing the amount of people we pay dole money to as well as making it a round £50 a week.

tgroom57

imho the biggest and most unfair bit is when the govt set what the tax on petrol will be way into the future.

How can they foresee what the price will be?
Their calculations (made when?) were to make x amount from the tax on petrol, but because the price has gone up they have made x plus a whole lot more. Surely there is room to trim this a bit without cutting into their expected core income from this duty?

kopicbloodaxe

I'd rather set a tax rate than a fixed amount. I think 50% tax on fuel is more than fair, so that would make it 75p per litre on current cost price of 50p per litre.

I would be more than happy to offset this with a substantial increase in road tax because this can be more easily budgeted for.

davetrousers

In the poll, Why not show the tax percentages next to the figure?

persian_star

I really dislike the fact that fuel tax is so high - it seems ludicrous to charge so much tax on any one thing, especially as it's a necessity for many. However, I also understand that in the place we are now, removing too much tax would leave a black hole that would have to be re-couped elsewhere. Therefore, for now, I would say equal the tax to the cost, i.e. 50p each to make a standard cost of £1 per litre, which is a huge improvement on £1.30, but still pays a not inconsiderable amount of tax. In the future I would bring it down to VAT as emidee said. Why should petrol be so unfairly penalised? It should be taxed at a similar rate to everything else.

pinkclouds

I opted for £1 but I too would have preferred 99p. I don't think dropping the fuel tax by a few pence would make much financial difference to my life but it would make me feel better.

The tax on tobacco and alcohol is jolly high these days but they *are* luxury products. Perhaps a nice fat tax on chocolate (another luxury product) could offset the lower fuel tax? Obesity is allegedly the main cause of death these days so it would be a public health service too (by "encouraging" lower consumption of sugary, calorie-laden chocolate but actually expecting the same level of consumption and thus a huge amount of bonus tax revenue).

WestonDave

In March 2010 when the last budget set duty rates petrol was approximately 116p per litre and on that basis the government would be expecting to get 58.95p per litre in fuel duty and 19p VAT. Total tax take per litre would have been about 78p.

With petrol now at 130p per litre (due to oil price speculation) the government is getting nearly 22p per litre in VAT and the same in fuel duty - therefore the government could afford to cut fuel duty by 2p per litre and still be getting the same tax per litre as it was expecting when it set the budget in March. This is before you consider the extra corporation tax it can expect from oil extraction companies due to the artificially high price of crude oil.

On that basis petrol duty could be cut without needing to raise other taxes - OK so 2p per litre isn't going to make a massive difference but its a decent start compared to continual rises!

robbies_gal

i voted for 70p i think im wishful thinking i wouldnt mind paying up to but no more than a pound

split_second

should be tax free.