Petrol Prices !!!

[ChrisUK]

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html

This article says that 81.5% of the price of a litre of fuel is tax alone (it's recently gone up again) but I wondered how much in real terms you pay in tax as a percentage of the actual price of a litre of petrol.

Bearing in mind that most things are taxed at 17.5%...
Petrol and Diesel are taxed at just over 300%...Yes...300%

Maybe enough is enough
If all professional drivers went on strike until the government brought down the price of fuel to a sensible level, they would have to do something about it, or the country would grind to a halt within a few days.
It's been done in other European countries before, and their governments were forced to listen.
What is it with the British, why do we just sit back and take this crap?

Because 85% of british citizens fail to complain when something is not right 69% of people know that . Yeah I get your point. Instead of just drivers why doesn't everyone go on strike!.

 

[jug]

If all professional drivers went on strike until the government brought down the price of fuel to a sensible level, they would have to do something about it, or the country would grind to a halt within a few days.
It's been done in other European countries before, and their governments were forced to listen.
What is it with the British, why do we just sit back and take this crap?

lets imagine we did something about it and fuel tax was halfed, that would mean the revenue from fuel would be halfed as well. that means the govt have to spend a lot less money, or get a lot of money elsewhere. the whole solution is to cut spending and tax. where can they cut spending? my policy is to scrap benefits. radical i'll grant you, but it would fix a lot more problems than it creates.

 

[Chas Uno]

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html

This article says that 81.5% of the price of a litre of fuel is tax alone (it's recently gone up again) but I wondered how much in real terms you pay in tax as a percentage of the actual price of a litre of petrol.

Bearing in mind that most things are taxed at 17.5%...
Petrol and Diesel are taxed at just over 300%...Yes...300%

Petrol has been taxed at that kind of level for decades. It's nothing new. And as Jug says, if they radically cut the tax off petrol then they'll just have to raise it from somewhere else. What they give with one hand they'll take with the other...

 

[RichDoblo120]

Petrol has been taxed at that kind of level for decades. It's nothing new. And as Jug says, if they radically cut the tax off petrol then they'll just have to raise it from somewhere else. What they give with one hand they'll take with the other...

But this is my point, we just put up with it. Britain has probably the highest fuel prices in the world, and the highest level of tax on fuel in the world.
But it's been like that for decades so why bother complaining about it.
If spending was cut on things like, invading other peoples countries, they wouldn't need to raise so much tax in the first place.
Other countries manage to keep fuel prices low so why can't we?

 

[Chas Uno]

Other countries manage to keep fuel prices low so why can't we?

They probably have other different taxes that are much higher than ours to compensate. It's all about balancing the books. If they slashed the fuel tax they'd have to raise the money from somewhere else, so we might get cheaper fuel but end up paying loads more in another tax instead.

 

[french bean]

Other countries manage to keep fuel prices low so why can't we?

Because other countries don't have the NHS or the benefits sytem we do.

They do have other higher tax generators like the french charge VAT at up to 25% and their direct taxation is at a higher level

 

[RichDoblo120]

Because other countries don't have the NHS or the benefits sytem we do.

They do have other higher tax generators like the french charge VAT at up to 25% and their direct taxation is at a higher level

I'd prefer that..I think.
Don't the French have tolls instead of road tax too?

 

[Venters]

I'd prefer that..I think.
Don't the French have tolls instead of road tax too?

yeah they do. I spent 85 euros in one day driving thru france.
I'll take the road tax thank you.

 

[RichDoblo120]

Nah, I reckon scrap the road tax and have motorway tolls instead. That way the ones that drive the most, pay the most.
Why should a little old lady who uses her car once a week pay the same road tax as a travelling salesman who might be doing 100k miles a year?
I'm not in favour of the idea of tracking peoples movements and paying by the mile, like the scheme that was proposed, but motorway tolls would be fine, as long as they got rid of the road tax AND halved the duty on fuel.

 

[ChrisUK]

Nah, I reckon scrap the road tax and have motorway tolls instead. That way the ones that drive the most, pay the most.
Why should a little old lady who uses her car once a week pay the same road tax as a travelling salesman who might be doing 100k miles a year?
I'm not in favour of the idea of tracking peoples movements and paying by the mile, like the scheme that was proposed, but motorway tolls would be fine, as long as they got rid of the road tax AND halved the duty on fuel.

Thats not really fair IMO. The people who drive the most on MOTORWAYS pay the most which is an unfair seen as though alot of people to loads of miles on just b-roads for example (like me 2 years ago) I could do 350 miles in a week without touching a motorway. The only way to make it fair is to allow the government to put a tracker in your car and tax you per mile.

Personally I prefer the current method with the Tax Disk but they should introduce shorter periods of taxing for the car you keep as a treat for a weekend / summer .

As far as fuel duty goes I'd rather they cut back on benefits and make fuel cheaper.