From tomorrow, 1 April, UK families will start to pay on average an additional £54 a year in tax on car fuels, the AA warns. In just over 12 months, that could rise to more than £150 extra. Millions of motorists may think this increase is being sneaked through before the Budget.
The Chancellor had postponed the fuel duty rises in July 2008 to “help motorists and businesses get through what is a difficult time for everyone”.
At midnight tonight, fuel duty and VAT on petrol and diesel rises 2.12 pence per litre. With nearly a third of UK households with two or more cars this means that for a family with two petrol cars, each consuming an average of 1,286 litres of fuel per year, the annual tax burden will increase by £54.53.
From 1 April 2010, following VAT’s return to 17.5% and an ‘inflation + 0.5p’ fuel duty rise this time next year, a further 4p a litre is likely to be added to the cost of petrol and diesel.
Four out of five drivers have demonstrated their opposition to Wednesday’s fuel duty increase through the AA Populus poll of more than 10,000 AA members. Half of the sample want the Chancellor to freeze fuel duty and 31% want it cut. Only 18% can see any justification for a fuel duty rise to support government spending in any shape or form.
AA comment
“These April Fuel increases are no joke. It’s a shame that this and other fuel tax increases will severely dent consumer spending and undermine the UK’s economic recovery,” says Edmund King, the AA’s President.
“Taking an extra £1 off drivers each time they fill up their fuel tank is a £1 taken away from high street and leisure spending that would help revive the economy.
“The vast majority of unemployed, low-income, young, elderly, rural and drivers on fixed incomes are not on tracker mortgages. Their cost of living is likely to have gone up rather than down, and another 2p a litre reduces the monthly budget of a family with two petrol cars by another £4.30. We want motorists to let us know what they think in the AA Zone and we will feed this back to Government.”
Source
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/news/april-fuels-day-fuel-duty-increase.html
