Another form of tax! (UK Petrol Prices)

Member Name: ck888_uk

Product:	UK Petrol Prices
Date:	05/07/00 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Less pollution

Disadvantages: Less choice, more costs overall

Petrol prices are rising in the UK much more than any other country because the government puts something like 500% tax on the basic cost. Even a small increase by the oil producing countries e.g. 10p a gallon will mean that we pay an extra 60 pence a gallon.

Can the government do something about the increase? It is not in their interests to do so, they may like you to think that it is due to oil costs going up. That is true, but it is not the reason why we are seeing such an increase. The more the oil goes up the more tax is collected.
All this is really good news for Labour, they can blame the Arabs, collect lot's of dosh. Use it to give taxes away in the next budget, claim Labour is reducing tax and hope to win the next election.

They can also claim that this is all good for us anyway, as we will then use our cars less and cause less pollution. My own view is that we should consider whether the journey has to be made, or whether public transportation is aviable alternative, however the way in which is going now, these alternatives will be forced upon us.

Car manufacturers will react as they will sell less luxury cars with bigger engines. Manufacturers make most of their profit on the large, luxury cars. This means to stay in business they need to turn to the more basic cars for their profits. This in turn means that for the majority of people we will spend more money buying the basic models.

So who gains? The Arabs for one and then of course the government. Look forward to the next election!

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