Fuel Duty Rebate
The proposal by Donald Crichton, Labour Candidate, to campaign for a £400 Fuel Duty Rebate for the Western Isles is intriguing, if ill thought through.
It's better than nothing, so let's welcome that; and let's see if he can formulate a sensible, workable, policy out of a press release.
Because it's the loopholes that cause the problem.
Does my car have to be based full-time in the Western Isles? If so, how does anyone check?
Is the rebate per car or per household?
Is the rebate limited to one car per person?
Does the car actually have to be driven, or will an MOT-failing ornament on the croft qualify?
And just how is this going to be administered?
Let's make it simple; reduce the duty at the pumps by making all the islands duty free zones.
It's better than nothing, so let's welcome that; and let's see if he can formulate a sensible, workable, policy out of a press release.
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| My other car gets a subsidy too. |
Because it's the loopholes that cause the problem.
Does my car have to be based full-time in the Western Isles? If so, how does anyone check?
Is the rebate per car or per household?
Is the rebate limited to one car per person?
Does the car actually have to be driven, or will an MOT-failing ornament on the croft qualify?
And just how is this going to be administered?
Let's make it simple; reduce the duty at the pumps by making all the islands duty free zones.
27 comments:
Let's make it simple; reduce the duty at the pumps by making all the islands duty free zones.
Quite. Not only is that the best way, it's the only realistic way.
DC will be sweating that the election comes round before his proposal is rejected. Am baffled about his strategy; the government is not going to effectively give £400 to every motorist here. Not happening.
Apart from the fact that it's a lot of money (reason enough to reject), they know there will be howls from the central belt media about 'preferential treatment for people who choose to live on islands' and, worse, 'the cities subsidising the rural people'. Unfair, yes, but that's how the media operates - DC should be savvy enough to have worked that out.
The government know this, and as many seats are located in the central belt - as opposed to the islands - they will not want to risk losing a handful of marginals because of this.
Reducing the duty at the pumps is more subtle, easier to defend if need be, and therefore more politically acceptable.
'Let's make it simple; reduce the duty at the pumps by making all the islands duty free zones.'
Surely that's what he's aiming for ? Anything else would be an expensive administrative nightmare to apply equitably.
(Genuine question - he's awfully hazy about what exactly he means by this 'rebate'.)
How long has he been working on this idea? He started thinking at A but unfortunately did not have enough fuel to reach B. Maybe there's more to come, I hope so.
I agree with you Angus on a duty free zone but there is always an however. The old style Channel Ferries used to sell duty free booze but it was far from profit free! Which discovered if you took away tax the average profit was still some 200%
If we had a duty free zone here you can be sure our integral black gold dealers will use it as yet another way to exploit their already high profit margins.
As Angus said, it's a start. Someone's got to come up with a workable solution!
Could someone explain to me, in non-libellous terms and preferably in words of two syllables, why our fuel is quite so expensive here ?
£400 or a 5p cut in duty (which seems to be the alternative offer).
I think I'll take the £400 please, I doubt I'll use the 8000 litres it'll take to make it worthwhile to go for a cut in duty instead. I'd be interested to know where the magic figure of £400 came from, it sounds like a figure plucked from the air rather than a reasoned figure.
The idea does have some merits though, it doesn't require EU approval so could be done in Scotland without Westminster dragging it's heels and provide help now rather than in six months or a year (or never).
I'd also argue that administration of such a scheme should be trivial if limited to cars that have road tax and shouldn't cost any more than managing a reduced duty system.
I hope he is going to explain how this idea could be excuted and hopefully it was not just an ill thought headline grabbing gimmick.
If it is feasable then it is a good idea, however me thinks that someone did look into this sometime ago and found that it was unworkable and uncontrolable.
Tony: I suspect everyone would take the much more fiscally attractive £400 :-) Which is why there isn't an iceberg in Abu Dhabi's chance that it's going to happen.
He might reasonably be asked why the Treasury should do this now since under the Labour chancellorships of two Scotsmen from 1997 to 2010, it resisted every attempt to get some relief for the cost of fuel in the Islands. Indeed the Office of Fair Trading refused to investigate how fuel carried in the same tanker in the north could suddenly become 5p a litre dearer in Orkney than it was in Thurso. such are the mysteries of the English official mind.
Will the hauliers get £400 for each lorry too? Will they pass on the saving to us if they do?
Am I missing something lately. The day the fuel duty and VAT increases to effect the price of unleaded went up to 139.9p per litre at Engebrets - I think Heb News had photo evidence of that. The next day it was again increased to 140.9p per litre (why??) and now today it is at 142.9p per litre (why??) - If this is due to new deliveries and the fuel price increasing generally - has the price at Morrisons/Tescos in Inverness also increased twice since the VAT increase?
A simple answer to all this is to reduce the duty by 15p per litre (or whatever the going rate is) so that Engebrets pump price is the same (or a fixed 5p more than Inverness) and so we know the Oil Shakes aren't ripping us all off.
5.48 Oil shakes? Is that an expensive milk shake?
5.48 Oil shakes? Is that a very expensive milk shake?
Mr Parker - I think you're repeating yourself. The Oil Shakes was a dig at our local Station owners who appear to shake a dice when deciding how many pence to add to their prices each day!
2.00pm
you are way behind the times on this issue. It is clearly recognised that the real culprits in hiking the fuel prices are the wholesalers Scottish Fuels.
The General manager for The Western Isles is Point Councilor Norman Macleod who is never attacked or castigated over the High Fuel prices.
They have no competition in the supply of fuel to local stations so can basicly charge what they want.
Sooner we get a new Tesco doing fuel the better
In reality a daft idea.
If DC is coming out with policies like this I wish he would be honest and stand as an independent. If I want to vote labour I expect Labour policies to be delivered. The ability to separate religion from politics would also be helpful and his comments on the proposed Sunday ferry in Tarbert showed that he may have an issue with this.
If he proposed a review into the monopoly into the fuels supply and pricing structure in the Islands & rural areas (including heating oil) then he would have my vote.
Another scheme, this one for the UK, mentioned in the Daily Fail today.
My cousin is a "market trader" in London who seemingly can bet on just about anything. With other people's money. His company has bet on petrol to reach £10 a gallon before the end of 2012 as part of some kind of complicated "bet" I don't understand.
It's great to see that the photocopier repair assistant and village idiot is back writing to Heb News.
Fuel Duty - an interesting statistic from PMQ's today. The WEEKLY revenue to the Exchequer from fuel duty is £600m (six hundred million pounds). And no-one in Govt can agree and implement a fuel duty rebate without consulting with Europe! Hence the wasted time and energy ... and hot air. Is this not a matter of individual nation sovereignty? OR more properly a devolved matter to the Scot Govt at Holyrood. What is the price of fuel in Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece ... and other nation states? I'm now paying 147p per litre for diesel: surely the most expensive now across all of Europe. This should be a policy/manifesto issue at the forthcoming Holyrood election.
8:16, maybe when you find your testicles you could write a reply to the person you obviously dislike so much, but on the Hebrides News site, rather than pointlessly putting your cryptic sh*te up here?
6.48 sh*te? perhaps you need some mr harpic, clean around the bend.
8.16
To whom are you referring?
6:48
What makes you think that 8:16 is a male.
What is the moon doing today. I see Mr Harpic is back on Hebrides News with more utter shyte.
All we need now is the Mad Dr from Tolsta Chaolias.
2:24, the comment has a thick-headed air of arrogance I wouldn't normally attribute to a woman.
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