Fuel up/down again
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
- Start date
I concur.
See, joining the debate instead of being a hypocritical goat was it?
Funny how you don't bleat on about fuel tax theft
Actually, I do, the tax on fuel is way too high for what it should be limited to (dealing with the social harms of fuel use) and is used as a cash cow.
However, given the various ways of raising revenue, avoidable taxation is preferable to raising income tax, NI or various other unavoidable taxes, so I haven't complained too much about it
Caporegime
how is it relevant ?
We're arguing about the price of petrol.
If you're arguing that they make too much money from oil, are you suggesting that the oil companies should sell petrol for less than it actually costs and make a loss on running petrol stations ? Effectively subsidising it by taking some money out of the big pot they get from trading oil ?
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
And I get told off for taking things literally?
If you went fishing for a whole day on a trawler and came back with just 2 fish and somebody said 'Did you catch much?' most people would say 'No mate, nothing at all'.
Because in the context of what would perhaps be expected, it is indeed nothing at all.
If you went fishing for a whole day on a trawler and came back with just 2 fish and somebody said 'Did you catch much?' most people would say 'No mate, nothing at all'.
Because in the context of what would perhaps be expected, it is indeed nothing at all.
We had a bunch of closures around the last high, a few years ago. Quite a few, some turned into flats, some car washes others alcohol retailers etc
Not so much this time round, but our demographics are probably a bit different. I can't say I have noticed any petrol stations close in the last year or so.
One opened with a supermarket in fact.
Actually, I do, the tax on fuel is way too high for what it should be limited to (dealing with the social harms of fuel use) and is used as a cash cow.
However, given the various ways of raising revenue, avoidable taxation is preferable to raising income tax, NI or various other unavoidable taxes, so I haven't complained too much about it
Yeah funny that.
What would you do with fuel tax, and the potential black hole it could leave in its wake?
Caporegime
Fox, I get my fuel from shell as it's nearest plus I'm a V power points whore.
I guess nectar points help BP too
and people with fuel cards who don't give a toss how much it costs because its not their money. I was in a queue at a BP station at 9am on a monday morning. Everybody in the queue in front of me that day had fuel cards.
Yeah funny that.
What would you do with fuel tax, and the potential black hole it could leave in its wake?
It's not really leaving a black hole - it's a 'new' revenue stream each time it increases.
It's not as if people are advocating the removal of a revenue stream that has existed for decades.
National fuel pool. Shell fuel probable has BP base gasoline and vise-versa.
You think there is what? That doesn't make sense in the context of what you quoted there.
It's not that simple though, independents who rely more on the attached shops than the fuel would probably still get by where they probably wouldn't be able to on just fuel alone. Supermarkets would still compete with each other to try and drive more people into their supermarkets. Tesco could probably lose £5 per fill because they'll make £20 off your shopping and ultimately that's £15 more than if you went to Asda.
If people had to rely solely on the profitability of fuel though, I think there would be a great deal less stations around and going by Jez's example of one of the big players being ready to pull out as it is, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that it would be the stations directly owned by oil companies that would go first.
The original statement was that tax was responsible for our ridiculous fuel prices, not horrendous greed by oil companies. You countered this by saying they make $1.5million per hour which is great, good for them but sod all of that money comes from retail fuel so it's pretty much completely irrelevant to the point at hand isn't it? Unless you're suggesting that oil companies should subsidise fuel prices just to be nice because they make lots of money elsewhere, the amount they earn from other arms of their business really has no place in the discussion to begin with.
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[TW]Fox;18131519 said:I wonder why
It has to be loss making, and its undercutting the big ones on the main routes by as much as 3pence.
I know why the supermarkets do it in both situations. Conversly, I worked at a tesco years ago, dalkeith, very big store covering a large part rural area. Store took £0.5m a week, the petrol station £0.75m. Consistantly. Only reason being, it was the last petrol station in edinburgh really going out on the A7 (big road for us out that way).
It is a fickle business. But there is profit.
Yeah funny that.
What would you do with fuel tax, and the potential black hole it could leave in its wake?
Reduce it to a level that is required to manage the social harm caused by fuel and road use, and ring fence it (same thing I'd do with all 'sin' taxes).
The black hole would be resolved because (if we're talking hypothetical) the government would be doing a lot less than it is now, and so would not require the same amount of money to spend. Indeed, that is the current issue I have with the coalition cuts, although they are a welcome change from the 'throw the money at the problem and wonder why things are getting worse' approach of Labour, they are looking to try and do much the same things with less money, rather than starting from scratch with a ground up assessment of what the government should be involved in at all, and what need providing and what needs facilitating.