(Waveney) (Con)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a bill to require the
inclusion on vehicle fuel receipts of the amounts of each tax
paid; to require all retail fuel pumps to display the amounts
of taxes paid when dispensing fuel; and for connected
purposes.
This Bill calls for all taxes to be clearly shown on fuel
receipts. Its principle is very simple: taxes should be clear
to the people who pay them. At the moment, they are not. The
Bill provides motorists with far better clarity on what they
are paying—a simple breakdown of fuel duty, VAT and VAT on
duty. There is no reason why these measures should be
unnecessarily burdensome or expensive to businesses.
I understand that the Treasury is advising motorists who
contact it in support of the Bill that it would be
impractical to introduce it. My response would be that
VAT—one of the taxes in question—is already shown on
receipts, and that all that is required for fuel duty also to
be shown is a simple arithmetic calculation multiplying the
number of litres by the duty per litre. The software cost is
minimal. With prices at the pumps rising to their highest for
over two years and total taxation of fuel bills hovering
between 65% and 70%, it is important that Government are open
and transparent. Surely it is right that the nation’s 37
million drivers should see the magnitude of the tax they pay
every time they fill up their tanks.
The Government must be commended for freezing fuel duty since
2011. However, the UK remains one of the costliest nations in
which to fill up with diesel and petrol. This is solely due
to the high tax component in pump pricing. The amount of tax
remains a huge issue for drivers. This is a tax on a resource
that over 70% of people have no choice but to buy to go about
their everyday lives. Total fuel duty revenue is
approximately £27 billion per annum, with an additional 20%
VAT on the duty itself bringing in an extra £5.24 billion.
Once drivers find out about VAT on fuel duty—a tax on a
tax—it really rankles and perplexes them.
The Bill aims to give motorists what my right hon. Friend the
Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) has secured for taxpayers in
general as a result of his Statements of Taxation Bill, which
he presented on 25 January 2012 and which was subsequently
included in the 2012 Budget and introduced in 2014. As a
result of his initiative, taxpayers now see how their money
is spent, broken down area by area of Government spending.
Council tax payers have the same right. The bills that they
will receive this spring itemise what each authority will
receive and invariably this bill comes with a letter from
council leaders explaining what they will be doing with our
money. It is only right that hard-pressed motorists are put
on the same level playing field, rather than being
continually exploited as a cash cow.
The initiative of my right hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich
was an important step along the road to full tax
transparency. It is now important to complete this journey,
so that motorists are able to hold Government to account. It
must always be remembered that it is their money, not the
state’s.
I commend my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert
Halfon), who presented a very similar bill to this on 16
October 2012. He has been a real champion of motorists and it
is important that we build on the great work he did in
helping to secure successive freezes of fuel duty.
It is also appropriate to pay tribute to the tremendous
campaigning work of FairFuelUK, and its founders Quentin
Willson and Howard Cox, for standing up for the motorist at
every turn in the road. I am grateful for the support that I
have been provided by the all-party group on fair fuel for
motorists and hauliers chaired by my hon. Friend the Member
for Dover (Charlie Elphicke). It is appropriate to highlight
the pump watch app that FairFuelUK is launching, which shows
how much UK drivers would pay for the same number of litres
that they have just bought if they had bought them in 23
other countries. I am afraid that the UK does not occupy a
good position in this league table.
I will set out four reasons why I believe there is a
compelling case for introducing this Bill. First, there is
the need for transparency—to be open, up front and honest
with motorists, who as taxpayers have been taken for granted
for too long. The magnitude of the tax paid every time
drivers fill up at the pumps has been hidden from them for
decades. UK drivers continue to pay the highest fuel duty in
the world for diesel and the fifth highest for petrol. There
is a need for transparency, so that the country’s 37 million
drivers can see how much they contribute to public services
and our economy.
The traditional VAT-only fuel receipts that are given to us
at petrol stations, which we invariably file in the glove
compartment, must end now and be replaced by open and
complete tax information. Every time a driver fills up their
vehicle, they will be able to see where their hard-earned
cash is going in the Treasury, and in what form—VAT, fuel
duty and VAT on duty. When prices at the pumps fell to around
£1 per litre in 2016, the tax that the Government took from
drivers reached 75%. What other huge tax contribution is kept
hidden from those who pay it? I believe that there is an
obligation on the Government to be open with UK drivers
regarding the taxes they pay. If drivers feel that they are
being taken for granted, we are driving down a very dangerous
road. There is a need to be completely up front and to show
motorists what they are paying.
It is also important to highlight the regressive nature of
fuel duty. In particular, it hits hard-working families and
those who are just about managing—the JAMs whose challenges
have been highlighted recently. We know that 90% of all
journeys are by road, and 70% of drivers have no choice but
to use their vehicles to get to work, to drive their children
to school, to take their elderly parents to hospital or to go
out for the day with their families. I see the problem for
myself in my Waveney constituency, where wages are below the
national average and many people have no choice but to use
their cars to get to work, often travelling long distances to
places such as Norwich, Ipswich and Felixstowe. There is also
a limited number of petrol stations from which to buy fuel.
Waveney motorists, like so many in similar areas around the
country, are hit hard by this triple whammy.
It is important to highlight the impact that fuel duty has on
the economy. Since 2011, the Treasury has listened to the
carefully researched and evidence-based FairFuelUK campaign
to freeze fuel duty, which has objectively proved that the
level of fuel duty directly impacts on the success of the
economy, the creation of new jobs, the level of inflation,
investment by small and medium-sized businesses and consumer
spending.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is important to highlight the enormous
groundswell of support for the measures in the Bill across
the country and around the Chamber. The Bill is targeted at
the nation’s 37 million drivers and at all our constituents,
so that they can see how much they are contributing to the
public purse, to our public services and to promoting
economic growth. The clandestine fuel tax receipt must end,
and it must be replaced by straightforward and complete tax
information for all drivers to see every time they fill up
their vehicles.
This is a straightforward Bill that will provide
straightforward transparency on fuel duty, on what people pay
and on where their money goes. It will make the taxation
system more honest. It will spark a debate on whether the
motorist should continue to be used as the nation’s tax cow
and on how their money is spent. Mr Speaker, I have strained
your patience, but I hope that the whole House will support
the Bill.
