Alistair Darling’s announcement of a staggered
fuel tax rise in the 2010 Budget has not received a warm welcome
from the automotive industry.  

The Chancellor said that the 3p fuel duty rise
will be phased out in three stages between April and January 2011
rather than in one go next month.

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But according to RMI Petrol chairman Brian
Madderson, Darling “failed to mention that, in addition to the 1.0
ppl duty increase from 1 April, he has already taken measures to
claw back a duty incentive provided to the refiners for biofuels
production.”

Madderson said that this would result in an
increase to the cost of product by up to 1.0 ppl also from 1 April
– meaning that the “real increase to the motorist at the pump is
set to be 2.0 ppl plus the VAT multiplier equating to around 2.35
ppl – some 135 percent more than might have been perceived from his
speech to the House”.

Ken Trinder, head of business development at
automotive software house epyx, added that the announcement meant
some “slight relief for those running company cars and vans, even
if those penny rises are likely to look small compared to the
underlying diesel and petrol price rises that we are currently
seeing.”

Richard Lawton at
FleetDirectory.co.uk said that the Chancellor’s decision was
“a short-lived breathing space for motorists and businesses, but
with fuel prices already extremely high, the 1 pence a litre
increase for April 1 should have been dropped altogether.”

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According to BVRLA chief executive John Lewis,
“staggering the 3p increase in fuel duty will give road users some
respite. In reality, they are still applying the thumbscrews, just
a little more slowly.”