Tax on Fuel Is an Outrage - So Are the Politics
“Tax on fuel [...] accounts for 57 per cent of the price of a litre of petrol and 54 per cent of the price of a litre of diesel.” That is the TaxPayers’ Alliance stark calculation.
I did not foresee Kemi leading with fuel duty at last week’s PMQs - but with the benefit of hindsight, it was the obvious call. Millions of us care about what it costs to fill up in a way we will never care about a Whitehall reorganisation or a constitutional commission. And in the middle of a war in Iran and global price jitters, the Government plans to increase the cost of every litre you buy.
Tax on fuel, including fuel duty and VAT, accounts for 57 per cent of the price of a litre of petrol and 54 per cent of the price of a litre of diesel.
That is the TaxPayers’ Alliance stark calculation, and it is backed up by the official pump‑price breakdown. And once you’ve seen that number, it is hard to unsee it: more than half of what you and I hand over at the pump is not paying for fuel, it is paying for the state. How on earth have politicians got away with it so long?
