Monday 12 November 2007

Born free, taxed to death.....

Just a quick post to vent my anger.... I've just been charged £1.10 a litre for petrol! Not in an expensive motorway fuel station, or out in the sticks, but a local ordinary station. That's £5.01 a gallon! ($10.33 usa, $9.96 can)

This is the cheapest I could find it anywhere, and they'd run out, as had two other stations I visited. Even this 'cheap' petrol works out at £4.55 a gallon! ($9.38 usa, $9.05 can)

I should point out, this is the budget petrol, if you want premium add another 12p a litre.

We pay 52.35p in tax on a litre of fuel. Then, on top of that they have the cheek to charge another 17.5% 'value added tax' (VAT) on the combined price of the fuel and the tax. That's a tax on the tax! So in all 69.85% of what you pay at the pump is tax...WHAT THE F&*£K!!!!


I've heard rumblings of another fuel protest, so I'm stocking up on fuel. I may as well because in April the duty on fuel is going up again, and this will bring the percentage you pay in tax to 73.55%!!!!!!!!!! "Stop the world, I want to get off!"



17 comments:

Siani said...

That's disgraceful. I'm so glad I don't drive. But I guess it means bus fares are about to rise - again. Ugh! Is it any wonder people are resorting to breaking the law by using chip fat and red diesel in their cars?

LesleyinNM said...

I think that is actually a little less than we pay here. It is about $3 per gallon here, which I think is equal to nearly $6 there, but I haven't check the exchange rate lately.

Maia said...

You said it. This is putting a serious damper on my road-tripping habits!
Love that top image, btw

Barkfoot said...

Lesley - I've been crunching a few figures. The USA gallon is slightly smaller than the UK gallon, taking this into account and the latest exchange rate....£1 a litre here works out at £3.79 a US Gal, which is $7.81 (USA), $7.54 (CAN). £1.10 a litre is £4.17 a USA gal, which is $8.60 (USA), $8.29 (CAN). Either way it sounds as if we are being ripped of on both sides of the pond!
How is the tax worked out on your fuel?

Barkfoot said...

OK, I've done some more working out....If fuel costs between $2.99 and $3.15 a US Gal in the USA, then that would work out as 38.1 pence to 40.2 pence a litre (Stirling).

Madwag said...

oh man do I hear you on this one!!! Yesterday my fuel light came on... so I pulled in to ASDA to get 4 quids worth.... guess what!!?? My fuel light never went off!!!!... If I didn't need to drive I wouldn't but I need to. I wanted to cry... I still do.

JLee said...

It's ridiculous isn't it!?? I want to get a horse. They run on grass. ha

Sharon said...

It's just highway robbery... no pun intened!

The last time I bought gas which wasjust a few days ago it was $3.45 per gallon!

Joe Jubinville said...

And they're itching to take Iranian oil off the market like they did in Iraq. They may keep that $100. a barrel wet dream going for some time.

Your taxes are outrageous, but at least you're getting some social services out of it. The leadership here is trying to bankrupt ours as fast as possible.

Their power derives from our dependence. We need to rethink that relationship somehow and take back our freedom. Fossil fuel has a dim future anyway.

Barkfoot said...

Somewhere Joe - The government has already realised that one day oil will run out and other forms of energy for travel will be employed. In response they are forcefully pushing through GPS and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) tracked road pricing schemes to ensure their tax stranglehold.

Lavender said...

Well, now I feel like Ive been getting it cheap, but Australia around $1.40 AUD per litre - so that would be 0.606476 GBP?? (That cant be right - but math is not my strength) Diesel is avg 1.25 per litre +/-
Anyhow, some exorbitant amount of that is taxes here as well - its NUTS!
Now before you stockpile a great quantity - see if you can find out if they took the benzines out of unleaded up there like they did here - because if they did, the rumour is that without the benzines it doesnt store well and becomes useless - dont know if its true - but maybe have a look to CYA*
I so hate the modern world (((grumble grumble))))

* CYA - Cover Your A**

Jessica said...

I paid $3.05/gallon today in Minneapolis. I asked the cashier if he could please use some Vaseline next time he raped me....

He didn't get it.

photowannabe said...

Yikes...that's highway robbery.

Anonymous said...

We just paid $3.11 on the 15th of November for one gallon.

going green

Annabelle said...

I don't drive and probably never will the way things are going, I doubt I could afford the insurance or the fuel to run it but I hear what you and EVERYONE I know is saying. As I say I'm not really up on this stuff but what I do wonder when I see the news is if the government are really into carbon footprints and taxing in relation to the size of how come when you see them drive off some somewhere they get in a massive car followed by two more massive cars, why don't they do what they tell everyone else to do and use small cars or better still SUFFER public transport as I have to do.

"M2" said...

damn...... I was bitching about $3.15 today.

that other eyeball is freaking me out

"M2" said...

Jessica........LMAO