The chancellor, Rushi Sunak, announced that fuel duty will be cut by 5ppl at 6 pm on the 23rd March. This fuel cut will reduce the excise duty on road fuels from 57.95ppl to 52.95ppl. This is the first change in fuel duty since March 2011.
This deduction in fuel duty occurs before VAT is applied, so the overall effect of this reduction is 6ppl, with VAT being applied at 20%.
Crude Oil prices hit an eight-year high earlier in March 2022, which in turn saw petrol and diesel prices rise sharply. Crude Oil prices have dropped back to $112 per barrel from $130 in early March; however petrol and diesel prices at the pumps remain high, with the average reported prices of £1.66 and £1.78 respectively.
When will I see the change?
The excise duty takes effect at 6pm on the 23rd March 2022. However, you may not see this at the pumps straight away.
The fuel currently in forecourts around the UK has already had the excise duty paid on it; as such, the forecourts can’t discount the price you will pay straight away without hitting their profit margin. There is also fuel stored within the UK, in fuel storage facilities, that will also have had the duty applied, and so this will also not benefit from the reduced rate.
Only fuel that hasn’t had the duty applied will be able to take advantage of this reduction straight away, so depending on where you are within the UK will depend on when you are likely to see these reductions.
This is likely to lead to more widespread pricing at forecourts, as current stock levels within the supply chain will significantly affect the price at the pump. This is on top of a volatile market that has already seen the spread of pricing at forecourts widen.
As soon as oil prices rise petrol prices are raised immediately but when they fall there is a list of reasons as to why they cannot be reduced immediately. Beats me.
We haven’t seen a decrease in the price at the pumps and yet the wholesale price did reduce. With prices for diesel differing from one pump to another by as much as 20ppl, how would we ever know if we are benefiting from the 5ppl tax reduction? 5ppl reduction is nothing more than a gimic with the way the prices are today.
Still a rip off
When the price of a barrel goes up,the price at the pumps goes up straight away.Never happens the other way,though!
great site with regular updates on fuel prices and other motoring features
Funny when the duty increases it takes effect straight away..but not the reduction ??? No doubt we will see no reduction as e will be told any reduction has been swallowed up in price rises…So once again=heads you lose-tails you cannot win comes to mind. M J Woodhams.
So the price will not come down instantly, as the tax has already been paid?
I am amazed that the tax is paid before fuel is bought by the public!!
It always goes up quickly but down slowly, Rip Off.
Yes and in ten days the prices will likely be right back where they were before the cut. He’s really not looking after the people who need looking after!!
These things are always arranged to suit big companies’ bookkeeping!! Another example: try getting back Air Passenger Duty for a flight you don’t actually make. Mr R**NAIR just pockets the money – and our the taxpayers’ Treasury doesn’t give a stuff !!
Yes we get taxed to the hilt and royally shafted by government with high taxes on everything! Rip of Britain I say!!
Rip off Briton
I’m not disagreeing with your rip off point, but tax and VAT is paid by every company land based that buys and sells, as soon as Fuel hits mainland it is taxed, and VAT is added, the thing about VAT is companies can do a VAT return. It essentially works out how much it has received in VAT against how much is paid out to their supplier and the give the difference back to the treasury, so they are not out of pocket, but their is no mechanism for this with the fuel duty, as their is very few times that it gets cut, and the chancellor doesn’t care about the nitty gritty, he’s made his headline, so that’s him done.
Always goes up straight away. But never reversed straight away. So who’s making the money?
Shell garage in Old Woking have reduced prices already 😁
If they have all this fuel stored, why did the price go up as soon as the price per barrel went up?
What a rip off, so how are these garages allowed to put it up? when the government puts it up from 6 o’clock that evening most of them increase the price from then ,how are they allowed to have it both ways Dick Turpin springs to mind
So the prices went up 5ppl already to cover the reduction…p take!!!!!
our local Morrison supermarket raised the fuel Diesel by 5p a litre on Monday but reduced on Wed by 5p per litre to the same price it was on Saturday. Total abuse of the system
Why was the chancellor on TV filling up at 6 PM. on 23rd. Go ripped off 11 an on the 24th as price hadn’t changed. Were waiting for head office to notify them. If he puts the price up, it up straight away, they don’t wait for new supplies before it goes up. It needs to made more clear when the when price changes are effective. Bloody rip off.
Can someone explain to me because I just don’t get it. I’m guessing the price for extracting oil has not changed in the last few years, right? Same with gas. So why have prices gone up? It can only mean that the companies producing it and the retailers are ripping people off, profiteering from something that does not exist. Am I correct? What has the ‘war in the Ukraine’ got to doing with it? The devastating war in Syria didn’t have an effect on petrol prices. Is this a load of propaganda made up to keep prices high? Similar to the criminal BBC who kept pushing down our throats ‘the petrol crisis’ (there wasn’t one) due to ‘lack of HGV drivers’ (it was nothing to do with this. Tankers drivers are in a total different league and there were no shortages) that directly led to panic buying and the resulting anxiety an chaos.
So does that mean when it goes up in price the fuel duty is already paid so the price should not increase until the next batch of fuel is purchased?
Sure I can see that happening…..Not!
Why are we seeing such a huge difference in diesel £1.73.9/l and petrol £1.58.9/l
prices?
Before we switched over to E10 petrol, the price difference between unleaded E5 and Super Unleaded E5 was about 5p-7p per litre, depending upon with petrol brand you bought it from.
As soon as we switched over to E10, the price difference between unleaded E10 and Super Unleaded E5 increase to about 15p per litre.
How on earth did the Super Unleaded E5 price change so much, when it’s the same fuel and nothings changed in terms of formula, it’s still E5.
Big profits for oil companies with the consumers paying for it