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Government to blame for high fuel prices            19/2/12

Sirs,

Further to my recent letter showing how the government are the main culprits behind our high (extortionate) fuel prices. I would like to point out that recent cuts in fuel duty that 'look good' on the government are imho nothing short of corrupt lies.

They compensated by increasing the tax directly on fuel compenies by as much as 32%, meaning the companies have to charge more for their fuel and that makes them look like the sole culprits. Tell me that was not the governments intention when they did it?

I stress, I am not siding with the companies that supply us on the islands, but we must not allow the government to make it look like they are on our side - when in fact they are harvesting the islanders for more tax than anywhere on the mainland! A tax on fuel is a tax on movement, a suppression of freedom. No other essential commodity is taxed so highly. Could you afford bread if they added 60p tax to each loaf?

But remember when you look at that glossy zero Vat rate on food, that the price contains the cost of transport, and the taxes on the oil companies - so you are paying fuel tax indirectly whether you like it or not, and whether or not you have a car.

In New York, today, diesel is an average of $4.15 A GALLON, that is £2.62, break that down into litres and they are paying approx 69p/litre INCLUDING FEDERAL TAXES! If you dont believe me look here http://www.newyorkgasprices.com/index.aspx?fuel=D and for tax info http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/mf.pdf remember those prices are cents per gallon, a US Gallon is 3.79 litres.

Just for fun lets convert our islands 153.9p/litre price to US gallons = £5.83, so they are paying a lot less than half our fuel price including their taxes. HOW CAN OUR GOVERNMENT JUSTIFY THIS? There would be civil war in the USA if they tried to pull a stunt like this.

John Malone
17 Breasclete
Isle of Lewis