Why do we pay so much for Petrol?

Question

When I went to Tunisia about 2 months ago they told us they pay the equivilant of 50 pence per litre, so why do we pay so much?

Answer 1

I got this from the BBC website. It is horrendously out of date as it shows petrol at 90p a litre, but I think it might shed some light on why it is so expensive.

Of the 90p:

47.1p is duty

23.2p is the cost of the product

13.4p is VAT

6.3p is Retailer/delivery

As you can see, 60.5p is going straight to the government. Since this article is written, I don't know if duty has went up, but since VAT is a percentage of the product's cost then that will certainly have risen. The cost of the product will also have gone up due to the oil shortages.

The government is trying to get us to blame oil companies for the cost of petrol, but it is they who are raking in most of the money. Remember that oil companies also have to pay corporation tax on their profits.

I hope this is helpful. If it were not for the government taxing us to the hilt, out petrol would be cheaper than Tunisia. At the moment the uk is the 6th most expensive place to buy petrol in the world.

Answer 2

Because Gordon Brown is also known by another name. Not Robin Hood, but Robbin' B@stard.

Answer 3

greedy government and oil companies. we are taxed to death..

Answer 4

It's all about taxes, the exchange rate with the USD (because oil is in USD) and your petrol stations profit percentage.

Answer 5

I believe of heavy tax charges by Government but that money used for free health care which cater for every citizen of UK. Other countries does not operate as UK policy & do not get free medical. It is pity that government does not think honest taxpayers.

Answer 6

It's called inelasticity of demand.  

Basically this means that regardless of the price (well, almost) we will still buy the same amount of product.  So this is the ideal product for the government to raise money on.

They can also claim that they are trying to persuade us to reduce our usage of petrol by the imposition of these taxes and thus increase their green credentials.

If we all stop buying when the price increases then the price will be reduced to a point where we are comfortable buying again.  But I can't see it happening, can you?  

Answer 7

Government Thieves

Answer 8

VAT and TAX are the reason why the cost is so high.

Answer 9

We pay very little for petrol,the main cost is the tax on it.When motorists started to switch to cleaner more environmentally friendly diesel ,the government started to lose tax revenue,so they put a really ridiculous wedge of tax on diesel to keep the same revenue coming in.( AND DIESEL IS CHEAPER TO PRODUCE ).

Answer 10

i dont know!

i was in new york recently and they was apparently having a crisis out there paying $4 a gallon and they had president bush have a emergency anouncement and everything

and theres us paying loads more than that!

Answer 11

Because the government have to get as much money from us as possible to give to african countries so they can buy weapons to shoot at our troops with.

How much did they give Sudan?

I know they gave £45 million to Zimbabwe last month.  

Answer 12

Er, tax or duty whatever it's called. OVER HALF the cost of a litre of petrol is Govt. TAX. YES, over half! So you got the cost of the crude plus the cost of refining and that's LESS than the TAX

Mind you as someone pointed out elsewhere a bottle of COKE is £1.80 a LITRE (Clacketts Lane, M25)

Of course all that TAX is going to improve our Schools, Hospitals, Police, Dustmen etc.

What? You hadn't NOTICED?

Jed, the cost of producing diesel should be cheaper as it is lower down the refining chain than petrol (less refined) but I am told because they designed most refining plants to produce petrol rather than diesel, the refining capacity for diesel is a lot lower and therefore more expensive. I have no proof to back that up but it sort of makes sense.

Answer 13

Taxes, my friend. But put it this way, is everyone as well looked after as us in the uk? I don't mind paying a bit more to live in a great country. Maybe it could be cheaper but hey, there is absolutely nothing we can do .