April Fuels Day - Labour's new tax raid on motorists starts today

Today may as well be known as April Fuels Day as Labour's latest tax raid on motorists takes effect today.

Despite long-standing campaigns from Plaid and leading industry voices calling for fuel duty to be frozen, the Chancellor announced in his Budget that fuel duty would rise from today and againa in October and again next January.

By then, January 2011, there will have been six increases in fuel duty since December 2008 marking a 17% rise overall.

Fuel duty had already risen by 11.6% in the last 18 months and is rising again by a further penny per litre today.

Meanwhile, the AA estimates that the average cost of running a family car has increased by £52 per month in the last year.

The cost of petrol at the pump has increased by 17% since early-February.

These increases are hurting hard-working families, small businesses, public services and especially those in rural areas.

Plaid has already criticised this fuel duty hike in an Early Day Motion lodged at the start of the week we demanded a freeze in fuel duty and we repeat our call for the introduction of a fair fuel duty regulator which would cap fuel prices.

The price of petrol at the pump has risen significantly since early February and is starting to be felt strongly by people from all walks of life. For many people who rely on their car for work or family life, this is a heavy and unexpected burden at a time when they are economically stretched.

Labour will soon have pushed fuel duty up by 17% in barely two years, well above inflation.

We need to be supporting struggling communities and industries or we risk damaging a very fragile economic recovery.

This unfair fuel tax is another example of an uncaring, out of touch Westminster Government.

Phil

Stop this fuel tax disgrace - duty hike must be postponed

Today we've renewed our calls for a freeze on fuel duty ahead of the Budget on Wednesday.

Fuel duty is set to rise by a further 2.55 pence per litre from April 2010 (1% above the rate of inflation) which will cost the average family an extra £200 a year and cause further problems to small businesses already struggling with higher fuel duties. Plaid has insisted that this duty hike should be postponed.

Campaign organisations such as the Road Haulage Association and local dairy farmers and contractors have come out in support of our calls for a fair fuel duty regulator. Under such a plan, an unexpected spike in petrol prices would lead to a freeze on fuel duty.

MPs from Plaid and the SNP have tabled an Early Day Motion urging a freeze on fuel duty and repeating calls for the establishment of a fuel duty regulator.

This will be the third time in as many years I have called for the introduction of a fuel regulator. It is the people of Aberconwy that will feel the pinch again if this fuel hike goes ahead. This will affect everybody from our dairy farmers, small businesses, and our struggling tourism industry. But as ever, it is always those who can afford the least who will be hit the hardest.

This is an issue that affects all parts of Aberconwy. Hard-working families feel the struggle of trying to run a car, but also these sky-high fuel taxes also impact on businesses, on prices in stores as costs rise to deliver food and other products to the shops, on the emergency services and on other public services.

Many people do not realise that when the VAT was decreased, the Westminster Government stuck an extra tax on fuel to compensate. That extra tax is still there and we are now facing another hike on top of it. This is deceitful and underhanded and I urge the Chancellor to come clean and give our people a break.

I'm pictured here with agricultural contractor Arwyn Vaughn who like every rural business will be badly affected by this fuel hike.

More from my colleague, Plaid's Parliamentary Leader Elfyn Llwyd MP, follows.

Phil Edwards

Rising fuel duty prices are already crippling industry – but it is also an unfair burden on struggling families, small businesses, rural areas in particular, and also sectors such as the emergency services will be hit especially hard by this.

This is just punishing ordinary people for a banking system failure that the London government helped to create. If the Chancellor needs to raise revenue he should do this by doing more to address tax avoidance by the affluent.

He needs to go much further than he has so far in introducing a genuinely progressive tax system. For example he could abolish the pension tax relief for the wealthy - not simply reducing it - and introduce he higher rate of tax at £100k not £150k. 

We will continue to fight this fuel hike and urge the introduction of a fuel duty regulator at the Budget to ensure price stability as well as lower fuel taxes.

Elfyn Llwyd MP

Notes:

Plaid Cymru has long campaigned for a new mechanism to cap petrol prices. Together with the SNP, a motion to amend the Finance Bill in 2008 to create a Fuel Duty regulator, was voted down by Labour.

1. FUEL DUTY Early Day Motion, tabled this week by Plaid’s Adam Price MP and the SNP’s Stewart Hosie MP, reads:

That this House notes the recent unexpected spike in the price of petrol at the pump, recognises that unexpected increases in the price of fuel impacts significantly upon hard-working families, businesses of all sizes, seriously affects those living in rural areas who have no transport alternative except private cars, and impacts upon the costs of public services; recognises the need for greater research, development and support for reducing our dependency upon oil for everyday use, but in the short-term calls for a freeze on fuel duty in this Budget to protect those affected by the current price spike and further calls for a fuel duty regulator to prevent unexpected spikes in prices from affecting hard working families in future.

2. SNP/PC motion last vote on 2 July 2008 (Finance Bill) – 308 to 14. Labour voted against, Cons and Lib Dems abstained. PC and SNP voted for. 2 weeks later, 16 July 2008, Tories put down a similar motion.