Fuel duty tax could rise ‘sharply’ next year to help balance the books, Chancellor warns
Fuel duty could rise ‘sharply’ next year to balance the books, chancellor warns, ending a 12-year tax freeze
- Fuel duty could rise sharply next year to balance the books, the chancellor said
- Jeremy Hunt said UK finances mean the fuel duty freeze cannot be extended forever
Fuel excise duty may need to rise sharply next year to balance the books, the chancellor warned yesterday.
Jeremy Hunt said the state of Britain’s finances meant that a fuel duty freeze since 2011 could not be extended indefinitely.
Mr Hunt canceled a planned 7p increase in this month’s budget and extended a ‘temporary’ 5p cut for another 12 months.
Harriet Baldwin, Tory chair of the Commons Treasury committee, said she was “very skeptical” that an increase would be imposed ahead of a general election.
But Mr Hunt said it didn’t seem possible to freeze the rights again.
Jeremy Hunt (pictured today) said the state of Britain’s finances meant a fuel duty freeze since 2011 could not be extended indefinitely
Harriet Baldwin, Tory chair of the Commons Treasury committee (pictured today), said she was ‘very skeptical’ that any increase would be imposed in the run-up to a general election
He said, “We can’t afford to make that change permanent. It just wasn’t an option.’
Fair Fuel UK’s Howard Cox warned that raising excise duty on fuel before an election would play badly in the polls.
Mr Cox said: ‘It’s staggering that the chancellor still doesn’t get it. Raising taxes on a vital resource that is also the commercial heartbeat of the economy will be political suicide in the year of the general election.”