Douglas Carswell's Blog

Rural reductions in fuel duty?

In some rural areas, we're told, fuel duty may be lowered to off set record price rises. 

Why not allow fuel duty to be collected by each county and metropolitan council instead?  In return for allowing councils to keep fuel duty, Whitehall needn't give them such a large annual grant.

The cost of collection in this electronic age would be minimal.  There is an approximate correlation between the amount of fuel bought in an area and socio-economic conditions.

It'd be localist, too.  Councils could vary the rate according to what they felt local people could bear.  We might then even start to see tax competition as some council's clocked that lower tax rates increased tax revenue.

Oh.  And even assuming rates remained high each time you filled up your car, you'd be more likely to see it as a legitimate tax rather than as a form of legalised fleecing ....   

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