Government faces £13bn black hole from fuel duty slump

[SimonD]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ces-13bn-black-hole-from-fuel-duty-slump.html
Full report is here but is 7 meg so only click on link if you want to download report
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets...les/fuel_for_thought-johnson_et_al-150512.pdf

I haven't read it but one conclusion is that fuel prices HAVE to go up and up and up as revenues dwindle from efficient cars.

 

[Graham]

That is depressing reading.
So is £2.00 a liter a possibility?



Gra.

 

[Andrew Prince]

Looks like the govt is getting a belated lesson in free market economics and the "law" of supply and demand... Do you think the phrase "demand destruction" means anything to them?
Pushing the duty up further and causing fuel prices to hit £2/l will increase the size of the deficit not reduce it Mark my words...

 

[warrenpfo]

Remove the anual tax we pay and replace it with a pay per mile is my thinking that way those who use the roads more than others pay for it.

 

[Rob80vx]

Remove the anual tax we pay and replace it with a pay per mile is my thinking that way those who use the roads more than others pay for it.

Im guessing you dont do much mileage.....

 

[Gav Peter]

Deficit seems to have coincided with my reduction in daily mileage

 

[wobbly]

Surely those who use the roads more use more fuel, and pay more tax as a result?

Pay per mile already exists - I pay £1.42per litre, and drive about 5 miles on that litre, so I'm paying about 28p per mile.

I could pay less tax if I got more mpg, but where's the fun in that?

Pete

 

[SpinDrift]

Well, in the long term the model would have to change. As the number of green vehicles increases and the number of diesel/petrol vehicles decreases, the tax collected from fuel will reduce, At the minute the gov does not tax green vehicles as an incentive to encourage the switch over. There will come a point when these vehicles will be taxed in some way, possibly dependent on milage - which is indirectly what we do today with the tax on fuel. Miuch as I hate to say it, money needs to come from somewhere.

 

[adrianr]

Sack at least half of the gov employees and then it would not be so expensive to keep their fraudulent operations running. How nice they have to steal and coerce the money they need from the honest men and women who create the real wealth.

They run a shoddy shop, and we get to pay for it.

 

[ignat]

Sack at least half of the gov employees and then it would not be so expensive to keep their fraudulent operations running. How nice they have to steal and coerce the money they need from the honest men and women who create the real wealth.

They run a shoddy shop, and we get to pay for it.

Now there's a radical thought! Who would have thought about THAT? Cutting costs? Government? Never!

 

[Crushers]

ALL governments need to learn NOT to count on being able to spend money they don't have.
sadly, instead they blow the tax payers money
then, when it is gone they increase taxes
so, they can blow more money.

over there, is the taxes one big slush fund or are fuel tax allocated only for infrastructure?
here, it is one big slush fund. a very poor way to run a country.

 

[Chas]

over there, is the taxes one big slush fund or are fuel tax allocated only for infrastructure?
here, it is one big slush fund. a very poor way to run a country.

Yes, unfortunately it's just one big slush fund here, and I read somewhere it was Winston Churchill's government who first took money from the Road Tax revenue to fund other things

 

[Graham]

After reading the many posts / ideas, I do do think that dwindling tax generated from fuel duty is only going to reduce even further as the tax on fuel increases.
There has to be a way to take more tax, off more people.
Not take even more tax off less people.
This has to be some thing like pay per mile, which would encourage more road users, to share the burdon.
I think.

Oh I don't know,
It's just a freaking mess.
I am just glad I don't have to fuel up any vehicles any more.

Gra.