[jeff1]

Copied from petrolprice.com

On Wednesday the Chancellor Alistair Darling will unveil the 2008 budget, and with it, a series of tax hikes on motoring. The government is still planning to press ahead with a 2p increase in fuel duty, to take effect from April 1st 2008, despite increasing fears over the state of the economy and new record oil prices being set each week. Oil prices reached a record $107.44 on Monday morning.

Figures from PetrolPrices.com show that the price of unleaded has shot up 18.1p per litre in the last year. At the beginning of March 2007 a litre of unleaded cost 88p. Both unleaded and diesel are at record highs - unleaded is now 106.1p per litre and diesel is 112.5p.

Despite the impact record prices are having on motorists, on the haulage industry and on inflation, it's likely believe that the Chancellor will push through the price rise anyway. Many believe he is scared of being labelled as a hypocrite – this year's budget has been billed as the 'Green Budget', and cutting fuel duty would not be in line with the overall message the government wants to convey.

Other methods of taxing motorists are expected to be announced too, for example taxing gas guzzling cars out of existence, by adding a 'showroom' tax of £2000 to the most heavily polluting cars, and colour coding tax disks by carbon emissions. This would make it easier for local councils to identify and penalise high polluters, possibly by charging 4x4 owners more for parking.

But why does the Chancellor need this extra revenue? Rising fuel prices caused by oil price rises have been bad for motorists, but good for the government. Compared to the Pre-Budget Report in October, figures suggest that the Treasury has received an extra £1.2 billion in revenue because of the tax on North Sea oil. This means Mr Darling could easily afford to scrap the 2p increase, which estimates suggest would cost £1 billion.

If the Chancellor doesn't scrap the increase, and the conditions in the economy and the oil market continue, pump prices will hit £1.50 a litre this year - the equivalent to well over £6 a gallon. This would have a catastrophic effect on motorists, the haulage industry, and therefore inflation and the country as a whole.

Motorists across the UK are now having to adjust their driving habits because of the price rises - many now take fewer non-essential trips, have switched to smaller or more efficient cars or drive slower to get the most out of their tank. Green lobbyists see these changes as evidence that hitting motorists financially is the only way to curb carbon emissions, but it's possible that going ahead with the 2p fuel duty rise and continuing to target motorists could cost Labour much more than a few pennies at the next election.

Should the 2p rise be scrapped? Have you changed your driving habits as a result of fuel prices? Are green taxes stealth tax or will they help us cut our carbon emissions?

[[GQC] Tim]

Someone has got to stop this really. There are so many countries were petrol is still dirt cheap. We are getting the hammer of death with everything.

[cat9921]

Someone has got to stop this really. There are so many countries were petrol is still dirt cheap. We are getting the hammer of death with everything.

Spot on there G.Q.C
Sad but true 

[Rob.Hall]

How do you stop it?

The Government...whichever, will use it as a green issue which they love and tax tax tax.

The last blockades did little to dampen the Gov's enthusiasm to tax fuel.

[jeff1]

They won't add the 2p in this budget today because they want us to vote them in the next election.

The only way we could fight back is do what the french do and blockade all the ports, the trouble with us Brits, is were to soft and give the government a free hand to do as they wish.

We pay tax on our earnings, then everything we go out and buy, we pay tax on it

[JSMC]

reading this has mad eme angry. country is a joke these days

[s.hughes]

What I always think of is loosing work, us w/c are the 1st thing to go in peoples budget. Now I do use wfp but only on certain jobs mainly the small amount of commercial that I have., mainly I use ladders. I can remember years ago when I 1st put ladders on the car I just hated it. I hate paying out so much for petrol always have and lets face it its always been expensive. When I put the ladders on I could just feel the drag in the car and noticed straight away the amount of fuel I was using. Like everyone else I got used to it and thought nothing of it after a while. But think now of all that water that you have to carry round when wfping all that weight that just adds to the fact that you use more fuel which is now at record prices.
I always think that 1 day everyone will be wfping but give it 10 years or so and we will see a topic on here about how someones day went when they used ladders. Just simply how easy it was to get the ladder off the car, wipe around your round and back home with nothing to unload, no hassle and it cost hardley anything to run the car.
I believe it will happen and the 1 using the ladder may well be me.

Steve

[WCE]

I think it's disgusting, Our friends in southern Ireland might be able to tell us a thing or too about what to do. I read somewhere that 10 years ago their fuel was the most expensive in Europe but now its the cheapest! They still pay similar prices for the oil barrels but can pay much less than we do at the pump. (The price they were quoted as paying was 67p per litre - but that may of gone up a little with the poor exchange rate).  The point is they must tax less, a lot less in fact on fuel and so that means that in the uk we are being taxed to death. The government argues that it's green and also it helps pay for the upkeep of the country, well, yes it might seem like a great idea to price the motorist off the road onto public transport but, what about the small business? Take window cleaning, can any window cleaner honestly say that they could run their business using only public transport? Of course not, just imagine it, you certainly wouldn't be able to lug your pure water, poles etc around. Even trad would be impossible in reality. This is just one example of a business that couldn't function by following the governments alleged desire to get people off the road. What they fail to realise is that these people will end up out of business and if we end up in a recession then we will have a job shortage anyway. The last thing we need is thousands of small businesses priced out of the market adding fuel to the fire.  The government will end up paying out more in benefits and JSA if they don't  do something about it. As for the oil companies complaining about the price of barrels of crude oil. Isn't it about time they absorbed a bit of the cost. The amount of profits they make every year shows they could afford to.           

[Gary Oldman]

Got to pay for wars somehow.

[Stevie G]

guys agree with everything you say but for as long as i can remember
past budgets have always included tax increases on fuel, cigs, booze etc,
and there was no green issues then. basically the country has no money it's in
debt to something like 250billion and it's struggling to cope.
if it were a business it would be declared bankrupt. like some poor
bloke who's firm was say 250k in debt he would up before the courts
his family evicted and some cases sent to prison for taking care of his
finances. all we will do is keep taking it on the chin.

[windowwashers]

Someone has got to stop this really. There are so many countries were petrol is still dirt cheap. We are getting the hammer of death with everything.

mexico was way under half are price

[vinty]

We are  still producing more oil than we consume, yet we pay the highest price in Europe, it seems that the price of fuel isn't related to the costs of production and refining it seems to be driven by what the oil companies and government think we will pay for it before our patience snaps.

[macmac]

This government is too concerned with looking after foriegners & idle ******'ds than it's own hard working people!
Be from a another country, be idle & contibute nothing= get everything.
Be hard working & honest= get nothing.
Politicians have no common sense- fact (most are ugly for some reason too)

We are self employed, we can play the government at their own game & I would blame no one for doing so this day & age!

Tony

[Spursboy1972]

Fuel prices really started to climb when the last deferred 2 pence per litre was added in Oct 2007. Diesel has gone up approx 20p per ltr. They will add it again in Oct this year.

I don'tthink it is a question of will it hit £1.50 it is that it definitely will. I believe the arabs are hoarding the oil reserves and forcing the price per barrel of crude oil sky high as a way of hitting back at the Western world for the war.

The thing to look at is the American economy as ours tend to follow behind. Lets face it theres is shot to bits at mo.

For me with this and any dovernment is inflation. What is it and how are they measuring it. I believe it is sitting at about 2.9%? How the hell do they control this when everything that affects the average household is miles above this nonsense figure?
Fuel 25% in the last 8 months.
Council Tax= various increases. here it is going to be 5%
Utilities= At least 17% in last year.

All this has knock on effects to everything we need to buy. Cost of production, cost of delivery and so on. All these things are passed on to the end user, US!!!

Yet we are told that the government are keeping control of our economy by keeping inflation low! Utter Rubbish.

Inflation is only low for them when it suits them. e.g: pay rises!!

So all that happens is that peoples disposable income is becoming less and less.

[vinty]

Wage inflation is low but price inflation is high

[windowwashers]

We are  still producing more oil than we consume, yet we pay the highest price in Europe, it seems that the price of fuel isn't related to the costs of production and refining it seems to be driven by what the oil companies and government think we will pay for it before our patience snaps.

most of the price we have to pay is tax, just like everything else.