Chancellor staggers fuel duty rises
Wednesday 24 March 2010 Back to Blog
Van contract hire customers have been granted some respite from rising fuel duty in the Budget, announced today (March 24th).
The chancellor Alistair Darling was expected to confirm a three pence rise in fuel duty to come into effect from the beginning of April.
Instead he has opted to raise the duty one penny at a time over a three-month period, something which has been estimated will save industry £150 million.
However, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has claimed that this will still place a considerable burden on business.
"For companies struggling to stay afloat, a staggered approach to increasing fuel duty will provide some breathing space," said James Hookham, the FTA's managing director of policy and communications.
"However, any increase in fuel duty, which is an unavoidable business cost, is bad news for the economy in the long-term and a staggered approach will delay its inevitably detrimental effects."
The AA recently predicted that the rising cost of fuel could see petrol prices average £1.20 a litre in the near future.