GREAT PETROL RIP-OFF

THE massive scale of Britain’s petrol tax rip-off is revealed today in new research.

It shows that recent Government tax hikes have clobbered motorists here up to five times harder than those in Europe.

Tax on unleaded petrol has shot up 13.5 per cent since late 2008 at UK forecourts while drivers in Austria have seen their costs edge up by just 2.3 per cent as a result of taxes.

The UK’s petrol tax surge is more than double the average five per cent average increase seen across 10 countries on the Continent where governments have held off piling so much additional tax on their drivers, according to the AA.

Now Chancellor Alistair Darling is gearing up to hit motorists here with another fuel duty hike on April Fool’s Day. The rise will mean up to 3p a litre to the cost of both unleaded and diesel.

AA president Edmund King warned that another crippling duty hike would hit motorists hard as they struggled to cope with spiralling fuel costs.

“Most other European countries have resisted such fuel tax hikes over the past 15 months, and they have also had to deal with the fallout from the credit crunch,” he said.

The Government has already announced plans to ramp up fuel duty by another 1p a litre, plus inflation, from April 1.

Despite a recent bout of deflation the total tax hike could be as much as 3p a litre because the Treasury plans to use its own inflation forecast based on what it thinks the rate will be in late 2010.

Motoring groups are furious at the Government’s claim that it is raising petrol tax to tackle the country’s financial problems.

Association of British Drivers spokesman Nigel Humphries said: “They just see the motorist as a cash cow. It is time to say enough is enough.”

Drivers have suffered three fuel duty hikes since December 2008 which together have added nearly 9p to the cost of a litre of petrol once the additional VAT is taken into account.

The tax element of a litre of unleaded soared from 64.17p on the date of the November 2008 pre-Budget report, when the Chancellor first announced measures to tackle the credit crunch, to 72.86p in mid- February this year. That is a 13.5 per cent rise in petrol tax over that period.

Meanwhile, drivers in 10 major European countries including the UK have seen their petrol tax rise just five per cent on average.

Motorists in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Portugal have all benefited from increases of less than four per cent. A Treasury spokesman insisted yesterday that the petrol tax hikes would help the wider economy.

Meanwhile, a steady rise in petrol costs has pushed UK unleaded up to an average 113.40p a litre at UK forecourts yesterday of which 73.08p was tax destined for Treasury coffers.