Fuel Costs soar and Gordon Brown just rakes in more and more tax

9.32.00am GMT Mon 16th Jun 2008

Fuel price rockets

The current price of diesel £130 is made up of the actual fuel cost of 54.25p/l; fuel duty (tax) of 50.35 p/l & VAT (applied to the fuel tax as well as the fuel itself) of 18.3 p/l. The 50.35 p/l duty is fixed regardless of the actual fuel cost but when the price was 95.9 p/l the VAT was only 14.28 p/l. So the Government is making 4 p/l MORE on each litre sold. There can thus be no justification for pressing ahead with the proposed 2 p/l rise in tax due in October. The Govt. is already collecting more than this increase via the VAT.

Liberal Democrats believe that the transport system should empower individuals to make sustainable choices about the way in which they live, whilst offering modern, affordable, accessible and reliable means of travelling around Britain.